Europeans, came from the West, and Andrew Battel (1600) found
idols amongst the people whom he calls Giagas or Jagas, meaning
Congoese chiefs. Moreover, the Gaboon pagans lodge their idols.
Behind each larger establishment there is a dwarf hut, the
miniature of a dwelling-place, carefully closed; I thought these
were offices, but Hotaloya Andrews taught me otherwise. He called
them in his broken English "Compass-houses," a literal
translation of "Nago Mbwiri," and, sturdily refusing me
admittance, left me as wise as before. The reason afterwards
proved to be that "Ologo he kill man too much."

I presently found out that he called my pocket compass, "Mbwiri,"
a very vague and comprehensive word. It represents in the highest
signification the Columbian Manitou, and thus men talk of the
Mbwiri of a tree or a river; as will presently be seen, it is
also applied to a tutelar god; and I have shown how it means a
ghost. In "Nago Mbwiri" the sense is an idol, an object of
worship, a "medicine" as the North-American Indians say, in
contradistinction to Munda, a grigri, talisman, or charm. Every
Mpongwe, woman as well as man, has some Mbwiri to which offerings
are made in times of misfortune, sickness, or danger. I
afterwards managed to enter one of these rude and embryonal
temples so carefully shut. Behind the little door of matting is a
tall threshold of board; a bench lines the far end, and in the
centre stands "Ologo," a rude imitation of a human figure, with a
gum-torch planted in the ground before it ready for burnt
offerings. To the walls are suspended sundry mystic implements,
especially basins, smeared with red and white chalk-mixture, and
wooden crescents decorated with beads and ribbons.