"Njembe," a Rights of Woman Association, intended mainly to
counterbalance the Nda of the lords of creation, which will
presently be described. Dropped a few years ago by the men, it
was taken up by their wives, and it now numbers a host of
initiated, limited only by heavy entrance fees. This form of
freemasonry deals largely in processions, whose preliminaries and
proceedings are kept profoundly secret. At certain times an old
woman strikes a stick upon an "Orega" or crescent-shaped drum,
hollowed out of a block of wood; hearing this signal, the
worshipful sisterhood, bedaubed, by way of insignia, with red and
white chalk or clay, follow her from the village to some remote
nook in the jungle, where the lodge is tiled. Sentinels are
stationed around whilst business is transacted before a vestal
fire, which must burn for a fortnight or three weeks, in the awe-
compelling presence of a brass pipkin filled with herbs, and a
basin, both zebra'd like the human limbs. The Rev. William Walker
was once detected playing "Peeping Tom" by sixty or seventy
viragos, who attempted to exact a fine of forty dollars, and who
would have handled him severely had he not managed to escape. The
French officers, never standing upon ceremony in such matters,
have often insisted upon being present.

Circumcision, between the fourth and eighth year, is universal in
Pongo-land, and without it a youth could not be married. The
operation is performed generally by the chief, often by some old
man, who receives a fee from the parents: the thumb nails are
long, and are used after the Jewish fashion:[FN#10] neat rum with
red pepper is spirted from the mouth to "kill wound." It is
purely hygienic, and not balanced by the excisio Judaica, Some
physiologists consider the latter a necessary complement of the