Note 108 — THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ANDREW BATTELL OF LEIGH IN ESSEX, SENT BY THE PORTUGALS PRISONER TO ANGOLA, WHO LIVED THERE, AND IN THE ADJOINING REGIONS, NEAR EIGHTEEN YEARS.

Human sacrifices among the Jaga are even now of frequent occurrence. They are made at the installation of a Jaga, one year after his election (when the sacrifice and its accompanying banquet are intended to conciliate the spirit of Kinguri, the founder of the Dynasty), at his death, on the outbreak of war, etc. The ceremony witnessed by Battell was an act of divination. The soothsayer summons the spirit of Kinguri, who is supposed to foretell the results of any enterprise about to be undertaken. In 1567, the Jaga Ngonga Kahanga, of Shela, having been advised by his soothsayers that he would suffer defeat in a war he was about to enter upon against the Portuguese, declined the arbitration of the sword, and submitted voluntarily. The body of the victim is cooked with the flesh of a cow, a goat, a yellow dog, a cock and a pigeon, and this mess is devoured (ceremoniously) by the Jaga and his makotas (councillors).