Among the Benga I saw a witch-doctor going round' a
village ringing a small bell which was to stop ringing outside
the hut of the guilty. Among the Cabindas (Fjort) I saw,
at different times, two witch-doctors trying to find witches,
one by means of taking on and off the lid of a small basket
while he repeated the names of all the people in the village.
When the lid refused to come off at the name of a person,
that person was doomed. The other Cabinda doctor first
tried throwing nuts upon the ground, also repeating names.
That method apparently failed. Then he resorted to another,
rubbing the flattened palms of his hands against each other.
When the palms refused to meet at a name, and his hands
flew about wildly, he had got his man.
The accused person, if he denies the guilt, and does not
claim the ordeal, is tortured until he not only acknowledges
his guilt but names his accomplices in the murder, for remember
this witchcraft is murder in the African eyes. It is
not just producing the parlour tricks of modern spiritualists.
I f he claims the ordeal, as he usually does, he usually has
to take a poison drink. Among all the Bantu tribes I know
this is made from Sass wood (sass = bad ; sass water = rough
water ; sass surf = bad surf, &c.), and is a decoction of the
freshly pulled bark of a great hard wood forest tree, which has
a tall unbranched stem, terminating in a crown of branches
bearing small leaves. Among the Calabar tribes the ordeal
drink is of two kinds : one made from the Calabar bean, the
other, the great ju-ju drink Mbiam, which is used also in taking
oaths.
In both the sass-wood and Calabar bean drink the only
chance for the accused lies in squaring the witch-doctor, so that
in the case of the sass-wood drink it is allowed to settle before
administration, and in the bean that you get a very heavy dose,
both arrangements tending to produce the immediate emetic
effect indicative of innocence. If this effect does not come on
quickly you die a miserable death from the effects of the poison
interrupted by the means taken to kill you as soon as it is
decided frorti the absence of violent sickness that you are
guiity.
The Mbiam is not poisonous, nor is its use confined, as the
use of the bean is, entirely to witch palaver ; but it is the most
respected and dreaded of all oaths, and from its decision there
is but one appeal, the appeal open to all condemned persons,
but rarely made— the appeal to Long ju-ju. This Long ju-ju
means almost certain death, and before it a severe frightening
that is worse to a negro mind than mere physical torture.
The Mbiam oath formula I was able to secure in the upper
districts of the Calabar. One form of it runs thus, and it is
recited before swallowing the drink made of filth and blood n—
“ I f I have been guilty of this crime,
“ If I have gone and sought the sick one’s hurt,
“ If I have sent another to seek the sick one’s hurt,
“ If I have employed any one to make charms or to cook
bush,
“ Or to put anything in the road,
“ Or to touch his cloth,
“ Or to touch his yams,
“ Or to touch his goats,
“ Or to touch his fowl,
“ Or to touch his children,
“ If I have prayed for his hurt,
“ If I have thought to hurt him in my heart,
“ I f I have any intention to hurt him,
“ If I ever, at any time, do any of these things (recite in
full),
i Or employ others to do these things (recite in full)
“ Then, Mbiam ! Thou deal with me.”
This form I give was for use when a man was sick, and
things were generally going badly with him, for it is not customary
in cases of disease to wait until death occurs before
making an accusation of witchcraft. In the case of Mbiam
being administered after a death this long and complicated
oath would be worded to meet the case most carefully, the
future intention clauses being omitted. In all cases, whenever
it is used, the greatest care is taken that the oath be recited
in full, oath-takers being sadly prone to kiss their thumb, as it
were, particularly ladies who are taking Mbiam for accusations
of adultery, in conjunction with the boiling oil ordeal. Indeed,
so unreliable is this class of offenders, or let us rather say this