ftoualegn Georoe Gorton Cnmmtno 291 



paces. Sichcly fired the first shot and naturally missed 

 it, upon which I let fly, and split it through the middle. 

 It was then set up again when Sichely and his brothers 

 continued firing without once touching it, till night put 

 an end to their proceedings. This of course was 

 attributed by all present to the power of the medicine 

 I had used. 



When Dr. Livingstone was informed of the circum- 

 stance he was very much shocked, declaring that in 

 future the natives would fail to believe him when he 

 denounced supernatural agency, having now seen it 

 practised by his own countryman." 



Having once started as a " medicine-man," Gordon 

 Gumming was bound to keep up the imposture, and, 

 indeed, he found the pious fraud a lucrative one, as 

 the following anecdote proves : 



" In the forenoon Matsaca arrived from the carcase 

 of the boreti\ he brought with him a very fine leopard's 

 skin kaross, and an elephant's tooth ; these were for me, 

 in return for which I was to cut him, to make him shoot 

 well. This I did in the following manner : opening a 

 large book of natural history containing prints of the 

 commonest of the African quadrupeds, I placed his 

 fore finger successively on several of the prints, and as 

 I placed his finger on each I repeated some absurd 

 sentence, and anointed him with turpentine. When 

 this was accomplished I made four cuts in his arm 

 with a lancet, and then anointing his wounds with 

 gunpowder and turpentine, I told him that his gun 

 had power over each of the animals his fingers had 

 touched, provided he Jield it straight. Matsaca and his 



