THE SONG OF THE SNAKE.

Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, by Richard Edward Dennett, [1898], at sacred-texts.com

1. Sanguila mboma kumina muntu.
2. Mbelli sandaugu nkambu ku vonda muntu.
3. Aula mani Zinga bazolila muliambu.
4. Bakana [2] ku vonda, ba vonda kua u-
5. Macosso rnuana Danka banzola maka lilanga.

1. [Si quis, in oppidum cum venerit, dicat] anguem parvulum hominem devorasse, [nemo ei credat. Sic Fjort cum primum de pæderastia audivisset) non verum esse credidit.]
2. [Ut inter saltantes opus est] cuivis cultro, quo nescio quem [illudentem] occidat: [sic Fjort, cum primum audivisset aliquem hoc facinus, in se admisisse, cultrum desideravit, quo eum occidere].
3. Filius Zingæ, [cujus facies velut] gum-copal [pulchra erat], pæderastiæ deditus erat.

[1. Bakulu-Nkulu, as I have already described to you, is that part of the dead which the Fjort says can be placed in the head of a living person; Ba, Bantu people; Kulu, perhaps soul, spirit. The Fjort say that the Bakulu are invisible and that they cannot see one another; but they contradict themselves, for on referring to my notes I find that when a man wishes to become rich, he obtains a fetish, or nkissi, called Buti, and when a man who has obtained this fetish dies, his nkulu ties up other Bakulu, and places them in the corner of some shimbec, and keeps them there.

2. Zinga means the long-lived; Bakana, the calculator, the man of thought.

4. Bakana [cum] occidere [voluit, et filius Zingæ respondit:] Occide [me, si vis, at ego in flagitio pergam].
5. Macosso, puer Dankæ [albi hominis] dominum. amabat, [et quun hic in Europam abiisset] non desiit lugere].