Mumbo Jumbo

This is generally used to mean any kind of gibberish or meaningless combination of words or syllables. Originally, however, it was a word in Mandingo (ma-ma-gyo-mbo) meaning "magician who makes the troubled spirits of ancestors go away." It referred to the belief of some Mandingo people in the western Sudan that a high priest called the Mumbo Jumbo had the power to protect his village from evil spirits.