Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/84

70 powerful "medicine" is obtained by the use of vizulu. These are simply bits of sticks about four or five inches long which have been charmed, then smeared over with some substance, the composition of which is uncertain. They are then wrapped round with white calico and are supposed after this to have the power of motion and of sucking the blood of the victim and thus causing his death.

There appears to be little doubt that witchcraft can cause death, either by the administration of poison, which the victim may sometimes take in his food, or by the state of abject fear into which he is thrown, when he will gradually pine away, unable to shake off the influence (possibly mesmeric) which has seized him.

In British Central Africa and in Equatorial Africa (I have not heard of it in German East Africa) witches practise the disgusting habit of exhuming and eating human remains. In the first-named country it is necessary on this account to take special precautions to guard the graves of those who are buried away from their huts in the Christian cemetery. (The native custom is to bury the dead inside the hut, where they are of course fairly safe from body-snatchers.)

II. The Witch-Doctor apparently does not resort to these abominations. Occasionally he may consult an oracle or use divining rods. The oracle sometimes consists of the skin of a small animal stuffed with herbs which act as "medicine." He has two principal branches of his art, surgery and exorcism. These are closely allied to each other, for nearly every disease is supposed to be due to evil spirits. I was fortunate enough whilst at Kologwé, in German East Africa, to see a witch-doctor at work. The sound of the drum one evening told us that something unusual was taking place in the village near the Mission station at which I was a guest, and the nature of the noise told us also that the performance was not a "bad" dance; the grossly indecent character of which would deter any respectable European from being present at it without urgent cause. We went into the village. The clear light of the full moon was sufficient to show distinctly all that was going on. In an open space between the huts a fire of sticks was burning on the ground. Close by sat the patient, a woman who had rheumatism in