WP LPA POR OTHE, NATIVE 381 
the British East African government, and it is hard to con- 
ceive of any code less fitted to the needs of these backward 
people. A wise and firm-handed local administrator can 
accomplish what no high court official at Mombassa can 
possibly achieve. The local civil servant knows, or should 
know, his people; the missionary, if there be one, certainly 
does, and these can, and should, be allowed to deal with the 
problems that witch belief constantly gives rise to. 
The Mohammedans (Somali or Hindi) very cleverly 
taking advantage of the natives’ belief in witchcraft, have 
sometimes gained an influence on even the most intelligent 
of them, which they have no scruple in turning to their 
own advantage. I have told elsewhere of an instance 
of this unscrupulous deviltry of theirs. They succeeded 
in gaining almost complete mastery on one of the best 
known headmen in Nairobi, a man who had been an officer 
in the Sultan of Zanzibar’s army, who had commanded 
native soldiers in the desperate fight at Lubwas, and who 
had been brought up from infancy as a Christian, a good 
and faithful man, who knows Africa from the sea to the 
hills as few know it. In an evil hour for himself —— con- 
sulted a Mohammedan doctor at Nairobi for an affection 
that had attacked his eye. They threw him into an hyp- 
notic state, and while under this influence, robbed him of a 
large part of his hard-earned money. More than that, 
they persuaded him that no European could do for his eye- 
sight what they could do. This I found out with much 
difficulty, after I had proposed to take him to see my doctor 
in Nairobi. Nothing I could do or say at the time could 
persuade to accompany me. He insisted on “going 
to his own man,” as he said. I had my suspicions aroused 
by this, but as yet had no idea how far they had gone with 
him or how completely he was under their spell. Arriv- 
ing at Nairobi, disappeared and failed next day to do 
his work; this failure seemed to me extraordinary, as I had 
