STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 281 



case of disobedience, the man only is punished, and cases have been 

 known where wives who disHked their husbands have accused them 

 of breaking this strange law, and have thereby gained a double 

 advantage, freed themselves from a man whom they did not like, 

 and established a religious reputation on easy terms. 



In fact, the Chitome has things entirely his own way, with one 

 exception. He is so holy that he cannot die a natural death, for if 

 he did so the universe would immediately be dissolved. Conse- 

 quently, as soon as he is seized with a dangerous illness, the Chitome 

 elect calls at his house, and saves the imiverse by knocking out his 

 brains with a club, or strangling him with a cord if he should prefer 

 it. That his own death must be of a similar character has no effect 

 upon the new Chitome, who, true to the Negro character, thinks 

 only of the present time, and, so far as being anxious about the 

 evils that will happen at some future time, does not trouble himself 

 even about the next day. 



PRIESTS AS RAIN-MAKERS. 



Next to the Chitome comes the Nghombo, a priest who is distin- 

 guished by his peculiar gait. His dignity would be impaired by 

 walking like ordinary mortals, or even like the inferior priests, and 

 so he always walks on his hands with his feet in the air, thereby 

 striking awe into the laity. Some of the priests are rain-makers, 

 who perform the duties of their office by building little mounds of 

 earth and making fetish over them. From the centre of each 

 charmed mound rises a strange insect, which mounts into the sky, 

 and brings as much rain as the people have paid for. These priests 

 are regularly instituted, but there are some who are born to the 

 office, such as dwarfs, hunchbacks, and albinos, all of whom are 

 highly honored as specially favored individuals, consecrated to the 

 priesthood by Nature herself. 



The priests have, as usual, a system of ordeal, the commonest 

 mode being the drinking of the poison cup, and the rarest the test 

 of the red-hot iron, which is applied to the skin of the accused, and 

 burns him if he be guilty. There is no doubt that the magicians are 

 acquainted with some preparation which renders the skin proof 



