92 ACROSS AFEICA. [Chap. 



July, By means of playing alternately on the hopes and fears of 



18'73. their credulous dupes, the workers of magic for a time realize a 

 comfortable livelihood ; but at last a day of retribution arrives. 

 The magician is suspected or denounced by a rival of having 

 caused the illness of some great person ; and unless he can save 

 himself by flight, or turn the tide of jjopular opinion against 

 his accuser, he is seized and lashed to a stout post, round which 

 a circle of fire is kindled. The unfortunate wretch is then 

 slowly roasted until he confesses, when the tire is heaped upon 

 him, and his life and agony quickly terminated. 



Often, while suffering these tortures, the magicians seem pos- 

 sessed by a sort of mania to uphold their reputation, and boast 

 of crimes they pretend to have caused, saying, " I have killed 

 such a one ;" " I have prevented rain falling ;" " I caused the 

 Wahumba to carry off so-and-so's cattle." In many cases also 

 they have faith, to a great extent, in their own powers, and cer- 

 tainly are thoroughly believed in and feared by their dupes. 



White magic, such as divination, curing fevers, boils, etc., by 

 means of charms and incantations, finds many professors, and 

 is considered harmless. A large proportion of those working 

 white magic are women, but nearly all professors of the black 

 art are men. 



The son often succeeds to his father's profession ; but where 

 a magician has been suspected of practicing against the welfare 

 of a chief, his whole family is sometimes destroyed with him, 

 to prevent any of them harboring ideas of revenge against the 

 chief or his successor. 



While at Usekhe, we amused ourselves with shooting pig- 

 eons, which came in flocks just before sunset to drink at a wa- 

 tering - place near our camp ; and at these shooting - matches, 

 which provided a little variety for our evening meal, the losers 

 had, as a penalty, to fill a number of cartridges. We also found 

 in the crevices of the rocks some coneys, which were very good 

 eating, being to the taste much like rabbits. Owing to a pe- 

 culiar formation of their feet, these coneys can cling to the face 

 of the rocks like flies to a wall. 



Usekhe was at one time the richest and most prosj^erous sec- 

 tion of Ugogo. But many of the Arab caravan, previously 

 mentioned as attempting to pass without paying mhongo, died 



