FACTORS IN NATIVE ECUNUMIC DEVELOPMENT. ^1^) 



year are disastrous in whole districts, and the total losses must 

 be very great considered in the ag^gregate. 



Ihe drought, however, had another effect which is not on 

 any account to be left out of consideration, for it operated in 

 the sphere of influence which so profoundly controls tribal 

 organisation and life, the sphere of witchcraft. The importance 

 of the factor of droug-ht is to be gauged by the fact that a class of 

 rainmakers was called into being in order to produce rain when 

 needed. The theory of the whole business from the Native point 

 of view is that the rites and ceremonies performed by the rain- 

 maker produces the rain, and its failure to appear at the appointed 

 time is due to the evil influence of one of the amagqwira, or 

 sorcerers. Thus the chief sends a beast to the rainmaker and 

 asks him for rain, and this beast is sacrificed. Ordinarily speak- 

 ing, rain should appear on the third day, when the bones are 

 burned. 



If the rain does not come, the chief sends to ask the reason 

 why, and some excuse is hastily invented. Perhaps the particular 

 beast was not of the right colour, and so was not acceptable to 

 the imishologu or spirits of their ancestors. Another beast 

 must then be sent to be similarlv sacrificed — in which case the 

 rainmaker and his family get another supply of meat, for the 

 beast is split along the spine, and one-half is retained by the 

 ofificiating priest for his own use, while the remainder is dis- 

 tributed amongst those present — and if the result is still negative, 

 he boldly declares that some sorcerers are at work counteracting 

 his influence and medicines, and that he can do nothing until they 

 have been " smelt out " and the charm destroyed. 



Sometimes the nmhlahlo ceremony is performed, or else the 

 rainmaker denounces some man as the sorcerer without any such 

 pretension. In many cases the man scents danger and flies for 

 sanctuary to a neighbouring tribe, and this is regarded as proof 

 positive that he must have been guilty ! In other cases some poor 

 creature is tortured until, to escape further agonies, he admits 

 that some small object was tiie charm which counteracted the 

 rainmaker's efforts ! Any little deviation from the ordinary 

 tribal custom was sufficient to single a man out and bring him 

 into danger of being denounced as a sorcerer, and so deeply and 

 universally is this ingrained into their thought that no Native 

 (until quite recently) would even plant potatoes, on the ground 

 that it was not according to the custom of their 'fathers to plant 

 more than pumpkins, and mealies, and Kaf^r-corn, and sugar 

 cane, and to do so would therefore certainly cause a drought. 



In a land of frequent droughts like South Africa, rainmakers 

 sometimes rose to positions of great eminence and power, and 

 profoundly influenced the tribe for peace or war, good or evil. 

 Many, indeed most, enjoyed a spell of success only to find an 

 untimely end ; but while they were in power their constant 

 " smelling-out " of individuals helped to distribute the cattle and 

 to keep them in circulation, for a man who had large herds was 

 a most profitable quarry to denounce, and his herds w^uld all be 



