Week 9 Reading Notes: Stories from the Congo, Part B

 These notes are from The Fetish of Chilunga which is found in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

• My portfolio is about creepy things happening in a creepy town
• I think that this story would work nicely in my portfolio!
• I like the urban legend feel that this story has. It has 2 or 3 incidents that happen to different people in different situations.
• It's one man telling these stories, but I could change it to multiple people telling stories around a campfire, or at night before bed. 
• This story centers around a fetish named Boio (the human representative is a princess)
• He dwells in the earth, and calls to people for offerings
• Voice of a bird
• The first story:
• A woman is gathering sticks when she hears a bird singing 
• She rudely tells it to be quiet
• Some invisible force ties her hands behind her back, she is kept there until her husband comes to find her
• He knows about Boio. The wife didn't know that the bird was Boio
• They go to the princess with a peace offering and the woman is set free
• The second story:
• 2 men are carrying a hammock pole 
• Some other men see these men, and mock them
• The men are bound, much like the woman in the first story
• The hammock was carrying Boio in the hammock (but they were invisible)
• The men can only be free after a hefty fine is paid to the princess
• The third story:
• Short
• Girls that think their future husbands (arranged marriage) are ugly are imprisoned by the fetish 
• Other, shorter story:
• Town goes to dance for the fetish
• If they dance badly, they are punished
• A white man does not believe, until he is told to give presents to the fetish
• They disappear, and then he believes
• Only ones that can see the fetish are the men that carry food to him
• I think I could write an invisible spirit that plays tricks on everyone! 
• I would make up new stories (maybe a bit more horrifying) 
• People would be going around, telling their stories, trying to outdo each other. 
• Maybe the spirit shows up! To punish those that don't believe in him! 

Image Information: 

Shoebill bird (a bird that can be found in the Congo)

Hans Hillewaert 

Found on: Wikipedia