182 PKIMITIVE AGEICULTUEAL EACES 



are well known ; all through this region in former days warfare 

 was regularly waged, and was a constant source of elimination. 1 

 Of the Hottentots we hear that the tribes ' were constantly at 

 war with each other ' ; 2 from another account it would seem 

 that the fighting was neither very prolonged nor sanguinary. 3 



22. Belief in witchcraft as the cause of death is common 

 throughout Africa ; furthermore as a result of this belief the 

 supposed offender is often slain. There seems to be no doubt 

 that among many tribes this factor of elimination is of some 

 importance. Speaking of Kalabar, Hutchinson says : * They 

 cannot believe, or at least they will not try to understand, how 

 natural causes create diseases, but attribute them and subsequent 

 death to " ifod " or witchcraft. Hence a plan is adopted to find 

 out the perpetrator by fixing on a number of persons, and com- 

 pelling them as the alternative of the Egbo law of decapitation, 

 to take a quantity of a poisonous nut, which is supposed to be 

 innocuous if the accused be innocent, and to be fatal if guilty.' 4 

 Even among the relatively advanced Baganda, ' death from 

 natural causes rarely presented itself to the native mind as 

 a feasible explanation for the end of life ; illness was much more 

 likely to be the result of malice finding vent in magical art '. 5 

 Torday mentions the Bayaka as an exception to the general rule 

 in that they accept illness as a cause of death, though ' trials for 

 witchcraft are not unknown '. 6 Though the belief is widespread 

 that the cause of death is to be sought in magic, the amount of 

 elimination varies considerably from place to place. Formerly in 

 British Central Africa ' it was so general that deaths due to it 

 were in the larger villages matters of daily occurrence '. 7 Among 

 the South African tribes ' the number of persons who perished 

 on charges of dealing with witchcraft was very great *. 8 In West 

 Africa it was undoubtedly common. 9 For the Congo district, 

 Burrows 10 and Du Chaillu, 11 for Central Africa, Werner 12 and 

 Macdonald, 13 for South Africa, Junod, 14 and for Madagascar, 

 Parker, 15 bring similar evidence. Speaking of the Congo region, 



1 Theal, Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 344. 2 Same author, History, 



vol. i, p. 38. 8 Kolben, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 282. 4 Hutchinson, Western 



Africa, p. 150. See also same author's Ten Years' Wanderings, p. 54. 6 Roscoe, 



Baganda, -p. 98. 6 Torday, loc. cit., p. 137. 7 Maugham, British 



Central Africa, p. 276. 8 Theal. Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 205. 



Wilson, Western Africa, pp. 115 and 179; Beecham, loc. cit., p. 227. 

 w Burrows, loc. cit,, p. 43. Du Chaillu, loc. cit., p. 271. 12 Werner, 



Native Races, p. 168. 13 Macdonald, loc. cit., p. 106. u Junod, South 



African Tribe, vol. i, p. 417. 16 Parker, G. W., J. A. I., vol. xii, p. 478. 



