130 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 



Then, again, from the niiHtary point of view, it is clear 

 that before an army marched off to war it was always doctored 

 in weird and wonderful ways by the Tribal Priest, an ox being 

 sacrificed in order to secure both the victory and the protection 

 of the rank and file against wounds. The spirits of their 

 ancestors were to be propitiated, if need be. In the event 

 of misfortune the agent through whom the evilly-disposed spirits 

 had exerted their power was to be discovered and exterminated, 

 to prevent further trouble. They thus believed in the super- 

 natural to the extent of the spirits of their ancestors, and of 

 spirits good and bad, other than disembodied spirits, and behind 

 them all some Great Being. But. in all their thought of the 

 spirit-world, fear predominated, and for very fear innocent men 

 were often " smelt out " and murdered, as we have already 

 seen, and their cattle confiscated by the chief, or divided amongst 

 his amapakati, or councillors ; or, again, an astute witch-doctor 

 would be unerring in " smelling out " men who had many head 

 of cattle — it pleased the chief, and often meant a good " fee "' 

 for the doctor ! And so men found that it was not safe to 

 grow too rich, that, indeed, if his herds were increasing it was 

 better for him to lobolfi (i.e., to pay a number of cattle as dowry 

 for a wife) for anothej- wife. 



The effect, then, of this fear of witchcraft would be to 

 stimulate the practice of polygamy, which, viewed in its reactions 

 upon the rate cif increase of population on the one hand, or in 

 its relation to the question of labour on the other hand, gives 

 further interest and value to. the development of this point 

 of our enquiry. It is not generally realised rhat it was not 

 the man who supported many wives by. the sweat of liis l)ro\v so 

 much as the wives who supported and laboured for the man. 

 The possession of many wives, therefore, meant a life of ease 

 for the man, and not the least of the evils engenden.-rl by 

 polygamy was that of idleness. On this account, on mora! 

 grounds, and in view of its relation to their belief in the 

 ancestral spirits, polygamy, it will be seen, must go. It is 

 one of the remaining buttresses of the unprogressive spirit. 

 Approaching the subject from quite another point of view, we 

 find crimes being committed in order to secure the medicines 

 needed for the purposes of witchcraft, thus revealing anew the 

 undesirability of its continuance. It was quite a common thing 

 during the early Kaffir wars, after some conflict between white 

 and black, for the rescue party to discover the mutilated bodies 

 of the victims. Certain organs, and parts, were most highly 

 prized by the witch-doctors as a " medicine," or an ingredient of 

 their " medicines," for it was commonly believed that certain 

 qualities were associated with certain organs of the body. How 

 the belief arose will probably never be determined now, or 

 possibly, when more is known, a connection with the belief in 

 the ancestral spirits will be traceable. At any rate, we do 

 know that the skin of the forehead was thought to be the 



