Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/88

72 his medicines, as they contain poisons, and are also charmed to have an evil effect on those with whom they come in contact. It is an antidote, with which he wipes his hands before operations.

"II. contains a powder made from tree-roots and leaves; its use is to protect cornfields from theft. The medicine-man perambulates the field singing and sprinkling the medicine on the ground, making the bell on the medicine-bottle [fig. 2a] ring as he goes round. The belief is that any thief who crosses the trail will die. (This is properly a Digo medicine, not Bondé.) It is also used for personal protection against witchcraft. The people desiring this assurance call the mganga, who sprinkles the medicine in a circle round them, using incantations to the effect that anyone who seeks to harm them with witchcraft will only harm himself. Often greater protection is ensured by being inoculated or tattooed—the skin is cut, and medicine like soot rubbed into cuts. This medicine is kept in

"III. Kobo ya paa (bottle of the gazelle), so called from the fact that the bottle is made from the skull of a gazelle, and bound with banana leaf. The stopper is at the nose.

"IV. is a choice medicine-bottle with a bell attached to it. This is hung on the outside of the mganga's basket, and when he is on the march the bell sounds, so that people may hear there is a medicine-man passing along the road, and call him in if required, or at least pay him due respect when they meet him. The wooden stopper of this bottle is specially ornamented with a roughly carved head, which is meant to frighten people. In early days of the Mission, dolls' heads were objects of envy to the witch-doctors. The skin of a young goat on the neck of the bottle testifies to the skill of the mganga—that he works cures, so receives goats. The better bottles are generally gourds enveloped in skins—perhaps to give them the appearance of being alive, as well as to show that the doctor has earned many goats.

"When arrived at his destination the wizard puts his basket down and takes out his various koba (gourds), &c. The large gourd

"V., always stays in the basket, with the lid closed over it. It is the stock-bottle, and the medicines of Nos. IV. and VI. are