35^ RlIODi:SIAX NATINT. foISOXS. 



of feathers, the faii^s and teeth of caniivora, were either oiven 

 to the soldiers to drink or were sprinkled over them before they 

 went into battle. Sickness of a more or less violent character 

 w^as the result. Various plants, some of them poisonous, are 

 used for sacrificial or purificatory purposes. Sic'kness or purging 

 usually follows from drinking a decoction made from them. 

 However, they are rather nasty than poisonous. It is a curious 

 fact that natives consider the more unpleasant tasted a medicine 

 is, the more potent is must be. Native doctors are well 

 aware of this, and made use of the knowledge accordingly. For 

 ordinary diseases, such as malaria, blackwater fever, blood poi- 

 soning, anthrax, dysentery, the native doctors use such plants as 

 Cannabis safiva, Solaniuii iiiyniiii. Lif^f^ia aspcrifolia. Crotalaria 

 bnrkeana. Bauliiiiia reticulata. Cassia fistula. Ptcrocarpns au- 

 goicnsis, and Auacauipscros rhodesica. This last plant is used 

 for blackwater fever, and for the manufacture of intoxicating 

 drinks, and has been forbidden by law. All these plants are 

 more or less poisonous, but the doctors seem to prescribe them 

 without serious consequences. They know that misadventure 

 means loss of reputation, and they are correspondingly careful. 

 There is no doubt of their success in curing dysentery and black- 

 water fever. Riclnus coiiniiuuis. Datura straiuouluiit and !iu- 

 phorbla abyssliilca. and other jilants not identified, are used 

 for wounds and sores. Some of these plants are also used for 

 snake bite, but the results do not appear to be satisfactory-. In 

 the case oi a chief who w^as bitten by a cobra two years ago, 

 1 know that se\eral such remedies were tried without avail.' the 

 ])atient dying within twenty-four liours of l)eing Ijittcn. 



The witch d(~>ctors had in the old days a far larger and richer 

 field for their o]>erations, in the custom of smelling out. the 

 detection of criminals, and the ordeal by poison. Their energies 

 are now mtich curtailed by law, for the profession of witch- 

 finding is now forbidden. In the old days the witch doctor was 

 a power in the land, and every man, woman and child cowered 

 wMth fear 1)efore him. No person knew when his or her turn 

 might come to be denounced for bewitching something or some- 

 body. " To breathe the word wizard was to imsheathe a sword 

 which mercilessly divided husband and wife, parent and child, 

 banishes the unha])])y victim from Iniman society, and i)laces him 

 beyond the i)ale of tril)a] law."* This is a very fair descrii)tion 

 of the blight of wiichcrafi which hung over the natives like a 

 black cloud. Iiniumerable acts, perfectly harmless in themselves, 

 could be construed as w itchcraft. It was a terrible engine of op- 

 pression, cruelty and revenge. The witch doctors w^ere not neces- 

 .sarily cruel or vindictive in themselves, but they knew only too 

 well that their i)ower in the country dejjended on their playing 

 up to the chiefs. The witch doctors were credited with being 

 al)le to turn themselves into various animals at will, such as 

 baboons, dogs, bucks or snakes, hence various ])arts of these 



"^ F. \V. Possc'lt: " SiK-ial Coiulitioiis of tin- Natives of Maslionaktnd." 

 Proceedings of Rhodesia Sciculific .Association. 12 [3], 130. 



