souls and administer them to patients who are short of the
article.
But there are other witches, either wicked on their own
account, or hired by people who are moved by some hatred to
individuals, and then the trap is carefully, set and baited for
the soul of the particular man they wish to injure, and
concealed in the bait at the bottom of the pot are knives and
sharp hooks which tear and damage the soul, either killing it
outright, or mauling it so that it causes its owner sickness on
its return to him. I knew the case of a Kruman who for
several nights had smelt in his dreams the savoury smell of
smoked crawfish seasoned with red peppers. He became
anxious, and the headman decided some witch had set a trap
baited with this dainty for his dream-soul, with intent to do
him grievous bodily harm, and great trouble was taken for the
next few nights to prevent this soul of his from straying
abroad.
My attention was drawn to the case by snorts, snores, and
flumps on the Kruman s part of even more than usual violence,
and I went to see what was up with the man, mentally deciding
that what he wanted was a dose of my pet pill. I found him
under a blanket and his nose and mouth tied over with a
handkerchief. It was a sweltering hot night and the man
was as wet with sweat as if he had been dragged through a
river, so I suggested his muzzle should be removed and then
being informed of the state of affairs regarding his soul, I of
course did not interfere.
The witching of things into a man is far the most frequent
method among the Bantu, hence the prevalence among them
of the post-mortem examination,-^’ practice I never found
among the Negroes.
The idea of the majority of deaths arising from witchcraft
is, I believe, quite true if you will read witchcraft as
poison. In a dull sort of way sometimes the black man
understands it so too, as is shown by his very generally regarding
the best remedy for witching as being a brisk purgative
and emetic, accompanied of course with suitable
ceremonies.
The belief in witchcraft is the cause of more African deaths
than anything else. It has killed and still kills more men and
women than the slave-trade. Its only rival is perhaps the
smallpox, the Grand Kraw-Kraw, as the Krumen graphically
call it. .
A t almost every death a suspicion of witchcraft arises. 1 he
witch-doctor is called in, and proceeds to find out the guilty
person. Then woe to the unpopular men, the weak women, and
the slaves ; for on some of them will fall the accusation that
means ordeal by poison, or fire, followed, if these point to
guilt, as from their nature they usually do, by a terrible death:
slow roasting alive— mutilation by degrees before the throat
is mercifully cut—tying to stakes at low tide that the high tide
may come and .drown— and any other death human ingenuity
and hate can devise.
The terror in which witchcraft is held is interesting in spite
of all its horror. I have seen mild, gentle men and women
turned by it, in a moment, to incarnate fiends, ready to rend
and destroy those who a second before were nearest and
dearest to them. Terrible is the fear that falls like a spell
upon a village when a big man, or big woman is just known
to be dead. The very men catch their breaths, and grow grey
round the lips, and then every one, particularly those belonging
to the household of the deceased, goes in for the most demonstrative
exhibition of grief. Long, low howls creep up out of
the first silence— those blood-curdling, infinitely melancholy,
wailing howls— once heard, never to be forgotten.
The men tear off their clothes and wear only the most
filthy rags; women, particularly the widows, take off ornaments
and almost all dress ; their faces are painted white with
chalk, their heads are shaven, and they sit crouched on the
earth in the house, in the attitude of abasement, the hands
resting on the shoulders, palm downwards, not crossed across
the breast, unless they are going into the street.
Meanwhile the witch-doctor has been sent for, if he is not
already present, and he sets to work in different ways to find
out who are the persons guilty of causing the death.
Whether the methods vary with the tribe, or with the individual
witch-doctor, I cannot absolutely say, but I think
largely with the latter.