Le territoire occupé par les Ba-pende forme une bande de largeur variable de la Lutshima au Kasaï entre le 5° et le 6,30° latitude sud, chevauchant le cours d'une série d'affluents du Kasaï dont le Kwilu et la Loange. Comme l'indique la carte ci-jointe, cette bande chevauche même la Lutshima à son confluent avec le Kwilu. Quelques milliers de Ba-pende y forment sur la rive gauche une poussière de petites chefferies.

PENIS SHEATHS OR GIRDLES OF CHASTITY AMONG THE PENDE

The Pende of the Belgian Congo are organized in a number of chiefdoms occupying a strip of territory which extends from Lutshima to Kasai, between latitudes 5° and 6·3° south, and borders several tributaries of the Kasai. A special feature of Bapende culture is the carved and decorated hut in which the insignia of the chiefship are kept; the hut is divided into two chambers; in the innermost, which only the chief's minister may enter, are kept the white clay used for the investiture, the ritual weapons, trumpets, &c; the other is the sleeping apartment of the chief's senior wife. Here the chief sleeps on special occasions, such as the sowing of millet and maize, but he sleeps apart on a separate mat, and may not have intercourse with his wives till after the grain has begun to sprout.

Every new chief at his succession must sleep on the ground until a hoofed animal has been killed in a hunt. After the hunt a new hut is built with a bed for the chief, and the old hut is destroyed; he is then given his principal or senior wife. Owing to the prohibition of hunting in the province of Leopoldville, these decorated huts are now disappearing.

Among the Mushinga, it is forbidden for the chief to beget offspring and his senior wife is therefore an old woman past child-bearing; but in the neighbouring chiefdom of Niegenene the chief himself from the time of his accession to office is forbidden to have intercourse with his wives. The wives return to their own villages and any children they may have are styled 'children of the chief'. To ensure that the chief observes the prohibition his minister has to fasten a girdle of chastity on him. The people of Niegenene (an offshoot of the Samba, who call them Akwa Nioka) know nothing about the origin of this custom, but they regard it as distinguishing them from other Pende. Some Nioka would prefer to abandon the custom and follow that of other Pende, but they fear the anger of the ancestors. At the same time they have a certain pride in preserving it and claim to be the only people among the Pende to do so. It appears, however, that the same custom existed among the Niungu or Mweni-Mbangu until twenty years ago when a Christian became chief. Apparently, also, both the Nioka and the Niungu administer drugs to the chief, which cause paralysis of his organs.