274 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



mother bear children that do not Uke one another. 

 Allah can put sense in them, and then they will 

 like one another. If one is stronger and flogs another, 

 only Allah can touch him. If a man does evil, Allah 

 can be sorry for him." 



This prayer must be written on a board, then it 

 must be washed, and the water given her to drink : — 



" When a woman drinks this, she will no longer hear 

 her father or her mother. If the judge [the white 

 man] speaks to her, she will not hear him, but only 

 her lover. She will never hear any other man, but 

 only the one. Ku n'Allaha ! Allah can give man 

 strenofth and then make him low. Allah sent a man 

 to wake all people. When Allah wakes the world 

 it will be very soon — no one knows when." 



It will be noticed that both these medicines subdue 

 a woman to a man. The first he takes himself, the 

 second he gives to her, and presumably it is he who 

 writes the prayer on her board, and he who washes 

 it and gives her the water to drink — perhaps without 

 her knowledofe. 



It seems hard that a woman should have no oppor- 

 tunity of gaining a man's heart, and in the pagan 

 medicines also she is the subject. 



The directions are similar to those of the Mahom- 

 medans : " Make a prayer on a board, wash it, and 

 mix the water with blue and crocodile fat, and rub 

 it in your hands." 



The interpreter used the word prayer, but probably 

 incantation was meant. This is it :" If a man make 



