Lonkundo is the eponymous founding ancestor of the Nkundo branch of the Mongo and the opening figure of the national epic. Instructed in the making of snares by the ghost of his father, he dreams that he will trap the sun; when he goes to his traps he finds caught in them not the sun but Ilankaka, a woman who shines like it, and he takes her to wife. Through her he becomes father of Itonde, the bell-bearing hero, and so grandfather of Lianja. The cycle stresses Lonkundo's mastery of the hunt and his repeated death and restoration, marking him as the culture-bringer who establishes trapping among his people.