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and very sick and she had a suitcase with her. You haven't opened her suitcase.
2 Where are Koongu and Toonda? These are uterine forebears who transmitted prohibitions.3 As if it wasn't true! |
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Answer (by one of his clients): Indeed! |
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Diviner: I have just seen a curse. Listen: it is Mbela who uttered this curse. How did he withdraw the curse? What do I see in connection with this cursing? What have you done with the bridewealth offered for your daughter Suuta? Have you thrown it away on the edge of the village, or what have you done with it?4 I see a woman, called Meengi. How are you related to her? Has she a husband or not? |
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Answer: Meengi is one of father's sisters, she is not married. |
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Diviner: Meengi is a sorcerer. And I see that you, her brother Mbela [here present], went with Suuta to Kinshasa. |
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Answer: Yes, I alone went with her to Kinshasa, and came back with her to our village. |
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Diviner: I see her in front of me. On the same morning that she brought forth her child, she died, the same day, before evening. Deny that if you can. |
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Answer: It is true, I don't have to add anything. When I came to ask the oracle's advice [in connection with Suuta's sickness], there was talk of sorcery. |
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Diviner: Listen to the way in which Suuta's father who died shortly before Suuta uttered a curse: "We are killing ourselves with our own sorcery. There should be no more sorcery among us."5 Who else had said, "let the sorcerers die," who else has uttered such a curse? |
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Answer: Yes, indeed, Suuta's father has spoken so. |
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Diviner: I see that the uterine forebears in this kin-group have uttered a curse: "If there is one of you involved in sorcery, then he should die." And who has infringed the prohibition [consequent to this curse]? Is it not true that in these circumstances you have killed one of your descendants [Suuta] as if she was a chicken [that men share in common meal]? Where have these sorcerers come from? I see that Mbela, the younger brother of Suuta's father, who has taken her bridewealth into his own house, uttered a curse against his paternal kingroup [i.e., a collateral patrilineage segment, to protect Suuta's fatally ill father]. Did he withdraw the curse before he took the bridewealth into his own house?6 |
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Answer (given by the head of the family): Who would claim that there was no need to withdraw the curse acting as if he was innocent of his brother's illness, although he really bewitched him? |
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Diviner: Your uterine forebears have once uttered a curse against you all. I see that Suuta's father died first. Now, in what way did you offer the required compensation to his great-granduncle, after his death?7 In what way did his uncle reunify the family and remove the hostility from your midst? What prohibitions did he remind you of? Moreover, who claimed that you don't have to look after Meengi, your father's sister, and that you don't have to share your income with her? |
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Answer: The head of the family offered no compensation for the first death [of Suuta's father] when his uncle came for it. We have been reunited sharing the same fire without having paid the required compensation for the deceased to his uncle. |
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Diviner: You [Mbela] took the bridewealth into your house, although you were |
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