694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



must observe certain time-honored customs. They must not use 

 salt ; if they did, and their wives were not behaving in their ab- 

 sence, the salt would act as a corrosive poison of the most viru- 

 lent kind. Few Africans would take this risk. 



The magician is in requisition in connection with every detail 

 of life. In a case of illness an offering of flour is made to the 

 ancestors. This is placed by the patient's pillow,* where the 

 spirits come to regale themselves with its essence. If there is no 

 improvement the magician is called, who may simply direct the 

 patient to change his residence for a time and then take his de- 

 parture. At other times he practices the art of cupping by means 

 of an inverted horn, in which case he professes to " extract " the 

 disease, as is done in the south, in form of bug or beetle. Counter- 

 irritation, by means of incisions, into which ashes and pounded 

 roots are well rubbed, is termed " killing " the disease. A charm 

 may be given which the patient must wear as a means of cure and 

 as a talisman against evil. 



By far the most common method of cure is "smelling out" 

 the person bewitching the patient by means of sorcery, and this 

 is done both in cases of protracted illness and when a person dies 

 suddenly.f The magician may simply "mark " the person who is 

 causing the disease, who at once goes with a present to the sick 

 man and a fee to the magician. It is, however, much more com- 

 mon to find the wizard put to death as a sacrifice, \ and in this the 

 custom differs from that observed in the south. There the cul- 

 prit is always put to death as a criminal, and only after a tribal 

 council has met and heard him " named " in the most formal man- 

 ner. In central Africa the magician has the power of summary 

 condemnation, when execution may follow immediately. The 

 custom of human sacrifice accounts for the difference where, on 

 the whole, the customs are the same, and regulated by the same 

 usages. Any one may be accused of bewitching, and in the case 

 of sudden death a traveler as readily as a resident. Dr. Elmslie, 

 while traveling among the Angoni a year or two ago, came to a 

 village where he halted for the night. He had three days of for- 

 est travel before he could reach the next settlement. The morn- 

 ing of his intended departure threatened rain, and his men, as 

 always happens in such circumstances, were determined not to 

 move. Again and again he tried to get them together, but with- 

 out success. When he was about to give the case up as hopeless, 

 a wailing and howling was set up in one of the houses and taken • 

 up by the villagers in chorus. His men came flying to their loads, 

 which they picked up and struck into the path, adjuring him by ' 



* Yao, as observed by Rev. Duff Macdonald. f Angoni, Notes by Dr. Elmslie. 



\ Rev. Duff Macdonald, Nyassa Region. 



