52 NOTES ON SAVAGE LIFE, ETC. 



burial, some offerings were left generally in the shape of dam- 

 aged weapons, etc (but no food) on the grave itself, while upon 

 the bark of neighbouring trees was smeared some red paint, 

 (wil-gi), either in complete rings, or horizontally zigzag lines. 

 For some few days onwards they would sweep with bushes the 

 surrounding ground, so as to track anything in the shape of 3. 

 visitor, human or animal, and very gratified would they be if 

 no tracks were discovered. This brushed part of the grave, 

 when once finally completed, was never by any chance subse- 

 quently traversed. 



Any doctrine of the transmigration of souls was only 

 hinted at in the fact recorded of blacks returning to their homes 

 after death in the shape of whites. 



They believed that diseases, of which they could recognise 

 no physically pathological origin, were caused by the charms 

 of their enemies, or persons whom they had in some way or 

 another offended. Such complaints the doctors or medicine men 

 professed to cure by various manipulations, massage, etc. 

 Thus, if called in attendance, the doctor would leave the camp 

 at night with a lighted fire-stick, go away to some considerable 

 distance, and extinguish it, and then return sufficiently near 

 to be heard. By stretching his cloak over his thighs and fixing 

 over his buttocks the ends upon which he sat, he clapped 

 upon it with his hands, by this means making no inconsiderable 

 noise, which was supposed to either drive away or to appease 

 the alleged enemy. Upon returning to his patient he would 

 remove a stone or stick by massage, etc., from the part most 

 affected. No special huts were constructed by, or for the use of 

 the medicine men, whom the tribes, believing them to be 

 equally capable of killing or curing, were careful never to ofiend. 

 Ventriloquism was never brought into requisition. 



The natives here were certainly under the firm conviction 

 that at night time the earth was permeated with evil spirits, 

 whom they feared. Such spirits could be checked or repelled 

 by means of fire, and this was one of the chief reasons why, 

 in the dark, they would never leave their camps without taking 

 a lighted fire-stick with them. In addition, the light precluded 

 the possibility of treading upon snakes, etc., unawares. 



Another very common idea amongst these people was that 

 there was always something supernatural lying in ambush in 

 everp deep water, or in any fairly-sized permanent water-hole — 

 some unwritten record of an extraordinarily big crocodile. 



