The blood covenant : a primitive rite and its bearing on scripture / by H. Clay Trumbull.

  • Henry Clay Trumbull
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The blood covenant : a primitive rite and its bearing on scripture / by H. Clay Trumbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    while one of my rifles was brought from the steamer. The shaft of the spear and the stock of the rifle were then scraped on the leaf, a pinch of salt was dropped on the wood, and finally a little dust from the long pod was scraped on the curious mixture. Then, our arms were crossed,—the white arm over the brown arm,—and an incision was made in each; and over the blood was dropped a few grains of the dusty com- pound ; and the white arm was rubbed over the brown arm [in the intermingling of blood]. Now Mata Bwyki lifted his mighty form, and with his long giant's staff drove back the compressed crowd, clearing a wide circle, and then roaring out in his most magnificent style, leonine in its lung-force, kingly in its effect: ' People of Iboko! You by the river side, and you of inland. Men of the Bangala, listen to the words of Mata B\vyki. You see Tande- lay before you. His other name is Bula Matari. He is the man with the many canoes, and has brought back strange smoke-boats. He has come to see Mata Bwyki. He has asked Mata Bwyki to be his friend. Mata Bwyki has taken him by the hand, and has be- come his blood-brother. Tandelay belongs to Iboko now. He has become this day one of the Bangala. O, Iboko! listen to the voice of Mata Bwyki.' (I thought they must have been incurably deaf, not to have heard that voice). 'Bula Matari and Mata Bwyki
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