236 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



call the cattle out. Flying with the rapidity of the wind, he would 

 then be followed by all the herd bewitched by him. When tired he 

 would jump on a tree and rest a while, fearing lest the oxen might 

 come over him and tread him down, as they were invincibly 

 attracted by the tail. Should people see him on his way, he would 

 say : " Take an ox, I give it to you," till he reached his village and 

 introduced in his own kraal the stolen oxen. There are other kinds of 

 tnpfulo : the power of ofening the hut, of putting away the husband 

 sleeping there without waking him, and of committing adultery with 

 his wife. . . . But the great mffulo consists in opening a man. The 

 following story will show how that criminal act is accomplished. 

 Some fifty years ago, a young man called Nkokana, the uncle of my 

 informant, astonished the whole tribe by his splendid way of dancing 

 like the chameleon. The circumcision school was just over, and the 

 last day of it all the boys had to enter solemnly into the kraal of the 

 chief, the back bent towards the earth, the body daubed with ochre, 

 and in moving slowly legs and arms like the chameleon. This cere- 

 mony is well known under the name of tchekatcJieka or nenga. One 

 of the men of the tribe who was a noi was struck by the perfect 

 performance of Nkokana, and, filled with jealousy, he resolved to 

 bewitch him. As the boys were going home that same day, happy to 

 be at the end of all their trials, they had to cross a thick wood ; sud- 

 denly a voice was heard calling : Nkokana ! The boy said : Yes, I 

 am coming, and he went to the place from where the voice had 

 come. But he found nobody. Instead of going back to his 

 companions who were waiting for him, he ran all through the bush, as 

 possessed by a kind of madness, always following the voice, but with 

 no success. The night clasped. . . He came back home entirely 

 worn out, a shadow only of himself, and died some days later. He 

 had been " opened up " by the witch. When such bewitching takes 

 place, it is probable that the noi wants to enslave his victim, and 

 make him w^ork for him. The shadow only dies, but the true self 

 is living and toiling for his persecutor, ploughing his fields, cutting 

 his wood, and so on. 



Such are the crimes of the baloyi and the seven principal means 

 of bewitching which they possess. They know a number of other 

 tricks. The rich imagination of the natives has full play to invent 

 any number of clever deeds which they attribute to them. What we 

 have said is enough to illustrate the theory of witchcraft. 



Let us consider briefly how the common people try to protect 

 themselves against such a terrible danger which threatens them all. 



3. — The Protection Against Balovi, and the Way in which 



they are punished. 



As we saw, every village is surrounded by a fence made up of 

 charms, which competent doctors put all round to prevent the baloyi 

 from entering. A great magician of the Nkuna tribe, Mankhelu, son 

 of the chief Shiluvane, gave me the receipt of the medicine which he 



