MOZAMBIQUE TERRITORY, PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA (1) 33 
is made from the spiny-pointed leaves of a shrub (Aspalathus) 
which grows in the Western Province of South Africa, from where 
Krantz used to import it by the sack. In those days it cost about 
3d. a pound. 
It was here that I first came in contact with the all-powerful 
and much-feared witch-doctors. Krantz had already told me quite 
a lot about their strange activities as he got much information, 
usually barred to visiting Europeans, through his personal servants. 
He believed in their occult powers and related to me how a certain 
European settler in the district once lost one of his cattle. It had 
been missing for a fortnight when he decided to consult a witch- 
doctor about it. This gentleman, probably having made exhaustive 
inquiries from natives far and wide as to where the cow really 
was, duly “threw the bones.” Witch-doctors usually carry an 
assortment of tiny bones—they may be from birds, reptiles or small 
mammals—and various teeth and small shells. When telling for- 
tunes they squat on the floor and cast these oddments onto a tiny 
mat while they jabber incessantly. The performance is repeated a 
number of times and final judgment is based on positions of the 
various pieces, all of which have some significance. The witch- 
doctor in question told the farmer where his cow was—right over 
some hills about ten miles away—and on a search being made, 
sure enough the cow was found. 
As Krantz also lost a cow while I was staying with him, he 
decided it was worth while spending a few shillings with the 
local witch-doctor, especially as I was keen on seeing one of these 
gentry in action. The man himself was quite a fearsome object, 
and his performance was no less impressive. He told Krantz that 
his cow was still alive and was in such and such a place some miles 
to the north. The next day the cow was discovered, dead, quite 
near home and to the south. It had been dead for days. This rather 
shook Krantz’s implicit faith in witch-doctors. 
There is an extraordinary belief which is not confined to any 
one district of Portuguese East Africa, but is current among widely 
separated tribes speaking different languages. The story concerns 
the civet-cat and is based on circumstantial evidence. Many Euro- 
