Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/394

 stances employed for medicine were bone-dust, scales of the pangolin, and the glandular secretions and excrements of certain mammalia. In one respect the Mabunda doctors differed from the Bechuanas, in having no external indication to mark their profession, unless their extreme old age might be interpreted as a badge of their calling.

The prevalence of superstition is no doubt the principal and most serious obstacle to the intellectual development of the Marutse-Mabunda tribes. It was the awe with which his subjects regarded him that enabled Sepopo, in spite of his atrocities, so long to maintain his power over them; the aged doctors that he kept about him never failed to inculcate the most superstitious notions upon the people, and the influence they exercised was very largely increased by the manifest efficacy of many of the remedies they used; there was no room left to question the sacredness of the person of the sovereign.

It would be absolutely impossible to enumerate all the charms that are employed, and I will only pause to recapitulate a few of them.

At the commencement of a war, after the completion of a new town, or in any season of general calamity, certain portions of the human body, removed during life, are deposited in special places in vessels designed for the purpose.

Bracelets and chestbands made of buffalo fat are supposed to keep off various disorders, and to act as a protection in cases of pursuit.

Fat, taken from the heart of a domestic animal, and fastened crosswise to a stick, and placed near the hut of any fugitive from his country, is