joined the chief of the Wanyamwezi, Mirambo, whose
battles he and his warriors fought as Ruga-Ruga. It was
chiefly owing to their help that this most powerful chief
managed to reduce all the neighbouring tribes under his
rule. Unfortunately for these Zulus they were never
more than mercenaries of Mirambo, and they therefore
did not thrive like the others. When Mirambo died, the
Wanyamwezi, then ruled by Mpanda Chalo, himself a
great warrior, expelled the Ruga-Ruga from their territory,
and they are now settled to the S.W. of Lake Victoria
Nyanza, between the Wahha and Ruanda countries.
All the other Zulu tribes increased most rapidly in
numbers and military force, through their custom of intermarrying
with captured women and enlisting in their
regiments the children looted in their raids, when the latter
had grown into manhood. Curiously enough, these boys
become so identified with their captors that, when a raid
is made on their former homes, they are the most ferocious
of all the invaders. It may be safely said that whenever
you find a Zulu settlement you will find there a splendid
grazing country, as the Zulu never settle where they
cannot rear their big herds of cattle.
But I must get back to the Matabele. In their polity
witchcraft played a leading part, if not the leading part
altogether ; and it must be well understood that there
were two kinds of witchcraft. One was practised by the
witch-doctors and by the King—such as, for instance,
the “ making of medicine” to bring on rain, or the
ceremonies carried out by the witch-doctors to appease
the spirits of ancestors. The other witchcraft was supposed
to consist of evil practices pursued to cause
sickness or death. According to native ideas all over
Africa such a thing as death from natural causes does
not exist. Whatever ill befalls a man or a family is
always the result of witchcraft, and in every case
the witch-doctors are consulted to find out who has
been guilty of it In some instances the witch-doctors
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declare that the evil has been caused by the angry
spirits of the ancestors, in which case they have to be
propitiated through the medium of the witch-doctors.
In other cases they point out some one or several
persons as having caused the injury by making charms,
and whoever is so accused by the witch - doctor is
immediately put to death, his wife and the whole
of his family sharing his fate. To bewitch anyone,
according to Matabele belief, it is sufficient to spread
medicine on his path or in his hut. There are also
numerous other modes of working charms-—for instance,
if you want to cause an enemy to die you make a clay
figure that is supposed to represent him. With a needle
you pierce the figure, and your enemy, the first time
he comes in contact with a foe, will be speared. The
liver and entrails of a crocodile are supposed to be most
powerful charms, and whoever becomes possessed of
them can cause the death of any man he pleases. For
that reason killing a crocodile is a very heinous crime.
While I was in Matabeleland a crocodile was one day
found dead, speared, on the bank of a river. The witchdoctors
were consulted in order to find out who had
been guilty of the deed, and six people were denounced
as the offenders and put to death, with their families.
The idea of a Supreme Being is utterly foreign, and
cannot be appreciated by the native mind. They have
a vague idea of a number of evil spirits always ready
to do harm, and chief among these are the spirits of their
ancestors; but they do not pray to them to ask for their
help if they wish to enter on any undertaking. They
merely offer sacrifices to appease them when some evil
has befallen the family.
Of witch-doctors there are two different kinds. The
first deliver oracles by bone-throwing. They have three
bones carved with different signs ; these they throw
up, and according to the position they assume when
falling, and the side on which they fall, they make
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