68 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
bits of medicinal bark, and small bladders filled with various 
substances are suspended round her neck and waist ; her wool is 
long, unkempt, and adorned with many blown-out gall bladders 
of animals. Sometimes her whole person is decorated with a 
miscellaneous array of gruesome-looking things. 
Crouching down, she crawls around, sniffing each man. Then, 
working herself into a kind of frenzy, her features become dis- 
torted, she writhes, twists, mutters, yells. In fact she does 
everything in her power to inspire awe, reverence, and deadly 
fear in the minds of the onlookers, each of whom is already in an 
abject state of terror, lest he should be the victim of her atten- 
tions. Eventually, with a succession of yells, she leaps high 
into the air, and with her wand, points to one of the men in the 
circle. Those in his vicinity instantly shrink away, in horror, 
from him. The hitherto terrified savages, now become ferocious 
and demoniacal, and gather around the victim, uttering the most 
appalling threats. However, the Witch-doctor knows her busi- 
ness. She wants the man’s gall for the Chief; so, commanding 
the men to retire, she consults the Chief. Announcing that he 
has given instructions as to the disposal of the man, he is dragged 
off and done to death in a horribly brutal and agonizing manner. 
In due time the dead man’s gall is privately conveyed to the 
Chief by the Prophetess, who then receives an ample reward. 
These “ smelling out ’’ cases were of frequent occurrence in olden 
times. If any of the Chief’s cattle should sicken and die, if any 
one should get ill from any cause, if misfortune in any shape or 
form should visit the tribe, this gruesome “‘ smelling out ”’ business 
was usually resorted to in order to unmask the wizard with the 
evil eye, who by his bewitching powers had caused the trouble. 
If the good folk in the Mother Country knew the conditions 
under which the natives of South Africa lived before the advent 
of the Dutch and the British, they would have less to say about. 
the “ poor, ill-treated, down-trodden, sweated blacks.’”’ A former 
Chief Magistrate of East Griqualand writes me as follows : When 
I came to Tembuland in 1876 there was living here a white man 
named King, who was married to a native woman. This man 
had killed a very large Python in the Dwesa forest. On informa- 
tion received from his wife through her relatives, he was assured 
that the chief Kuli was secretly laying plans to do him to death and 
secure his gall, so he precipitately fled. In those days a refugee 
