80 PEESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ^SECTIOX E. 



one another, they react on each other. Like acts on like. 

 Thus a certain remedy will cure a certain disease if it 

 resembles it in one way or another. 



Let me give some examples, to make clear this magic 

 mentality of the Bantu as opposed to the scientific mentality of 

 the modern European. 



A magician has had the good luck to discover a crow's 

 nest full of young. He climbs on the tree, and ties all the 

 little birds together by their feet. The mother crow, however, 

 is not at a loss to deliver her progeny. She brings each day 

 a leaf taken from different trees, and puts it in the nest. The 

 mag'ician keeps watch. He climbs, looks at the leaf, and 

 recognises the tree from which it has been taken. He goes 

 and digs a bit of root from that tree. After a few days he 

 will have cjuite a bundle of various roots. By that time the 

 little crows will be free, the string which was binding them 

 having given way, and the magician will possess a medicine 

 of first quality. By means of it he will be able to deliver 

 any patient from any disease or worry tying him. This is 

 pure magic, magic of the nice kind, as it is intended to help 

 and to cure — white magic, Ave may say — whilst ])lack magic 

 is the one which intends to kill by the same proceedings. 



Another example is as follows : A Eonga of the clan 

 Timba, which is the great clan of hippopotami hunters, has 

 succeeded in throwing an assagai into the back of the huge 

 black beast. The assagai was tied by a long string to the 

 nervule of an immense palm leaf. "When the hippopotarnus 

 was wounded, it at once plunged into the water, the string- 

 unrolled itself, and the big nervule, similar to a pole 

 twenty feet long, remained floating on the surfnce, being 

 dragged along by the beast in its attempt to escape. Now 

 the real chase would begin, and it would be fraught with many 

 dangers. At that very moment a messenger is despatched 

 to the hunter's wife in his village not far from the river. 

 She is told to go at once and shut herself in the hut. to sit 

 down and keep perfectly quiet. If she does so, the hippo- 

 potamus will be easily killed. It will not be too wild, it will 

 not fight too hard, and soon it will be possible to throAv 

 another assagai betAveen its nostrils. The animal will be 

 unable to close them any more, water Avill penetrate the hmgs, 

 and it will die. This is magic. The quiet demeanour of the 

 hunter's wife will cause the animal to be qxiiet. 



Another examjjle borrowed from the agricultural customs 

 may be given. Stealing mealies in the gardens is of common 

 occurrence amongst certain tribes, but it Avill be prevented 

 in the following way: The small nervules of another palm 

 tree called " rala " are taken. These nervules are like little 

 sticks, ancl are very flexible. They are called " tinhlamalala . " 

 At the extremity oi each of them a knot is made. Then a 

 snake's skin is sought — I mean an old skin, Avhich the ^snake 

 has cast. It is burned, a powder is made oiif of it, and the 

 sticks are smeared with it. Then the sticks are woven 

 together, and something li"ke a croAvn is made out of them. 



