The Theory of Witchcraft. 231 



occupying the N.E. corner of the Transvaal and the Delagoa Bay 

 district. I studied it amongst the Ba-Ronga of Lourengo Marques 

 and the Ba-Nkuna of the Selati district. Here I am staying amongst 

 the Pedi-Suto, of the Ba-Kaha clan, and have opportunity of 

 investigating the Suto ideas. My impression is that the South African 

 tribes as a whole do not differ substantially as regards their con- 

 ception of buloyi. 



I. — The Baloyi. 



The baloyi, or people who have this evil eye, are numerous in 

 each tribe. This power is hereditary, but, strange to say, it is 

 transmitted by the mother and not by the father. Therefore should 

 a polygamist have 3 wives, one of whom is a noi, all the children 

 he will have from that " noi "-wife will be baloyi, and his other 

 children will not be such. That dreadful power is sucked from their 

 mother's breast when they are still infants, but it must be strengthened 

 by special medicines to be really efficient. The " noi " mother 

 chooses one of her sons, to whom she does not dispense these drugs, 

 and he will be free from buloyi. Her aim in doing so is that, should 

 one of her offspring later on be accused of having killed by witchcraft 

 and be called to pass through the ordeal (of which we shall speak 

 hereafter), the immune child will be sent in his place to undergo the 

 trial. The chief will consent to that substitution, as it is well known 

 that all the sons of a " noi " woman are equally baloyi. But the 

 intoxicating medicine of the ordeal will have no effect on the substi- 

 tute, and therefore the true noi will escape ! 



Those baloyi know each other. They form a kind of secret 

 society amongst the tribe, and they assemble — with their spiritual 

 bodies — during the night to eat human flesh in the desert. There they 

 form a true " hubo," that is, a debating assembly. They discuss 

 what they will do to injure property or destroy life. They fight 

 sometimes. If one of them is defeated in the discussion (saying, for 

 instance, that there should be no mealies this year, a proposal which 

 is not accepted by the others) they condemn him to pay a fine, and 

 the fine will consist in a human body, which he will have to provide, 

 after having killed it by witchcraft. It might be that he will choose 

 his own child to bring it to the horrible banquet. It shows that there 

 are powerful and less powerful baloyi, and they are constantly trying 

 to overcome each other in finding out more efficient charms. 



As regards the other members of the tribe who are not witches, 

 or wizards, they are considered by them as stupid beings who do not 

 deserve a better fate than that of being eaten wholesale by the clever 

 baloyi! Thisse men-eaters are the truly intelligent, the superior, the 

 wise ones ! But the others fear them immensely, and when a boy 

 wants to marry, the main thing to consider in the choice of his wife is 

 that she does not belong to a family of witches. Therefore the 

 accusation, " You are a noi,^^ is the gravest insult which a man can 

 make to another. 



