21,8 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



with beads and copper wire. He has a very great influence, and 

 the man on whom the tail falls is a lost man ! Should there be no 

 white rulers in the country he would be hanged. How is the 

 mungoma disclosing the haloyil The father of the bewitched, his 

 parents, come to him, pay him ^i, and ask him to find out the 

 murderer of his son. He mak^s them sit down in a half-circle, 

 and, facing them, begins to put to them some questions. They 

 answer always by the word mamoo, which means yes, in the language 

 of bungoma. But their mamoo is cool or warm, doubtful or con- 

 vinced, and the clever diviner perceives easily every shade of meaning 

 in that perpetual mamoo. . . . He is well aware of all the disputes 

 and hatred between the people and, in his investigation, he draws 

 nearer and nearer to the man of whom the parents are thinking. Their 

 mamoo becomes bolder. . . The questions are more precise. . . At 

 last, when he feels himself agreeing with the consultant, the mungoma 

 pronounces the name and lets fall his tail. He is bathed in perspira- 

 tion after the great strain, and he remains silent, as if he were 

 invulnerable; he has triumphantly " smelt out " the culprit. . . 



Next day, relatives of the patient go to the kraal of the not, 

 waving branches, dance before him, and say : Thus you are killing 

 us ! The accused one keeps silent. Then he says : All right. We 

 shall come to-rriorrow and consult also our mungoma. Both parties 

 then go to another divinator. The scene of " smeiimg out " is again 

 gone through, and very likely the verdict of the second mungoma will 

 confirm that of the first one. . . The augurs know that they must 

 not contradict each other if they want to maintain their authority. 

 As soon as the proof and counterproof have been obtained, the case 

 becomes a judicial one. The plaintiff puts the matter before the chief, 

 who will not condemn before the guilt of the pretended noi is con- 

 firmed by the ordeal, the trial by the famous philter called mondjo. 

 The mondjo is a plant of the Solaneae family which possesses 

 intoxicating properties. It is administered both to the plaintiff and to 

 the accused by another doctor who knows how to prepare it. The 

 noi who has drank from it is exposed to the sun, and after a little 

 time shows symptoms of drunkenness. The whole scene is very 

 characteristic. The explanation given to me by an old native is this. 

 In the mondjo there is a little bit of human flesh reduced to powder, 

 or a bit of bone taken from a leper. The noi who eats it in drinking 

 the philter happens to do during the day what he is accustomed to 

 do only at night ; hence his loss of sense ! He has been revealed as 

 noi. In fact, the man who administers the philter is clever enough 

 to give a large dose to the accused and a small one to the plaintiff ! 

 The first one, being already under the effect of a strong suggestion, 

 is more apt to feel the stupif ying effect of the drug, and his drunken- 

 ness is easily explained in this natural way. * In former times there 

 was but one punishment for haloyi. They were hanged at once. 

 The last one who w^as killed in that way amongst the Nkuna is 

 Mudebana, hanged in 1892 or 1893 in Thabina by order of Mankhelu, 



* See for more details on the ordeal my book : " Les Ba-Ronga," pp. 431-439. 



