The Theory of Witchcraft. 237 



employs for the purpose. It is a kind of ointment in which are 

 contained different powders made up of various sea-animals j the 

 jellyfish (which the natives believe to be the result of the spitting of 

 the whale !), the sea-urchin, the sponge, and others. To these sea- 

 animals are added some roots which have been exposed to the light 

 by the rain which has washed out the soil in the kloof. All these 

 drugs which are also employed to obtain rain are mixed with fat 

 and burnt on charcoal, at dawn, on the road to the village to protect 

 the main entrance. Stones are daubed with it and put in all directions 

 to close other openings. Then a second fire is made before the thresh- 

 hold of the hut, and the smoke which comes out from the magical 

 fat will keep the baloyi away. " These medicines act wonderfully," 

 says Mankhelu. Should a noi succeed in entering the hut, the 

 power of that smoke will be such that he will at once be revealed. 

 Without any clothing, the noi will suddenly be seen there as if 

 dreaming, seeing nothing, knowing nothing. If it is a woman, I will 

 call her husband and show him his wife. . . ' What are you doing 

 here? ' he will say to her. She will not utter a word. Then I will 

 tell him : ' Look here, my friend. ... I might be hard on you. 

 But I have pity. Do not allow your wife to do anything of the 

 kind again. Pay me one or two oxen, and I will keep silent.' He 

 will consent. Then I beat the woman with my stick. She awakes, 

 and, quite ashamed of being in another hut without any clothing, she 

 will fly away home ! " Such is the testimony of Mankhelu, and he is 

 sure of having succeeded more than once ! ! 



But should all the protective medicines which surround the 

 village, which have been swallowed by the inhabitants or by which 

 they have been inoculated, remain without effect, should a serious 

 disease occur, one of those evils which are generally attributed to 

 the baloyi, the first thing to do is to go to the divinator, who will 

 cast the bones and make out if the disease is due to witchcraft 

 or not. This consultation is secret, and only preliminary. There 

 are in the sets of bones employed in the bantu divination, some which 

 represent the baloyi, especially the astragalus of the " duiker," that 

 small antelope which rambles about during the night, just at the 

 time when the witches operate. Should that bone fall in a certain way 

 near the bone representing the patient, it shows that his disease is 

 the outcome of hnlovi. The name of the noi will be searched for 

 and perhaps ascertained that first day, but the parents of his victim 

 will never dare to accuse him only on the testimony of the bones. * 

 The next step will be to go to the mungoma, the magician who 

 " smells out " the baloyi. A wonderful personage he is ! Amongst 

 the Nkuna the great magician is Nwashihandjime, a splendid man, 

 tall, clever, his eyes beaming with a kind of supernatural light, 

 holding an enormous tail of a horse fixed on a handle richly decorated 



* The Ba-Suto of the country generally were convinced by the mere consulta- 

 tion of the bones. They learned of the Thonga to go to the mongoma, and 

 they choose a thonga mongoma to help them. However, they used also 

 the mondjo ordeal and were going to Palabora to make it. 



