Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/218

184 people see the assistant putting these marks on the paths, they express great surprise when the nganga walks right up to his patient's house without any apparent guidance. The nganga in diagnosing a case must not ask any direct questions, but he meets that difficulty as follows:—He asks a series of very indirect questions, and, if those present say "ndungu," he knows he is on the wrong track; but, if they say "otuama," he knows he is on the right one, and the more excitedly they say the word the nearer he knows he is to the truth; and the more indifferently they say "ndungu" the further he is from the truth. Hence he starts somewhat in this way: "There are such things as pains in the stomach." "Ndungu," quietly say the people sitting in a circle or semicircle about the nganga. "Sometimes there are backaches, headaches, and pains in the chest." "Ndungu" is said very coldly by the crowd. The nganga knows he is on the wrong track, but still he has managed to narrow the circle of affected parts. He begins again, "There are such things as severe pains and aches in the arms and legs." "Otuama," say the poor folk. He now knows the affected part is an arm or a leg. So he continues to narrow it down thus until at last he says, "Ah! the right leg is bad." The people excitedly shout "otuama," snap their fingers, and look at the nganga with awe-filled eyes. The nganga now knows that it is the right leg that has to be treated. What are the most common complaints of the leg? Rheumatism, boils, cuts, sprains, and abscesses. So he starts off to discover the complaint and its location on the leg, and the people coldly say "ndungu" when he misses his guess, or excitedly shout "otuama" as by his cunning process he narrows the circle smaller and smaller until at last, to their astonishment, he says—"The woman is suffering from a bad abscess on the inside part of her right thigh," The people think that such a clever man, who has found out all about the disease, without being told, is just the man