52G THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



Much dancing and singing takes place on account of his escape, 

 and lie is allowed to demand that some punishment be inflicted 

 on his accusers, on account of the defamation. Among the 

 Eastern Africans visited by Captain Burton, a heated iron 

 spike driven into some tender part of the person accused is twice 

 struck with a log of wood. The Wazaramo dip the hand into 

 boiling water, the Waganda into seething oil, and the Waze- 

 gura prick the ear with the stiff bristles of a gnu's tail. 



The crime of sorcery is usually punished by the stake ; and 

 in some parts of Eastern Africa, the roadside shows at every 

 few miles, a heap or two of ashes with a few calcined and 

 blackened human bones, telling the shocking tragedy that has 

 been enacted there. The prospect cannot be contemplated 

 without horror : here and there, close to the larger circle 

 where the father and mother have been burnt, a smaller heap 

 shows that some wretched child has shared its parents' terrible 

 fate, lest growing up he should follow in their path. 



In countries where a season of drought causes dearth, disease, 

 and desolation, the rain maker or rain doctor, is necessarily a 

 person of great consequence, and he does not fail to turn the 

 hopes and fears' of the people to his own advantage. The 

 enemy has medicines for dispersing the clouds which the doctor 

 is expected to attract by his more potent charms. His spells 

 are those of fetissists in general, the mystic use of something 

 foul, poisonous, or difficult to procure. As he is a weatherwise 

 man, and rains in tropical lands are easily foreseen, his trickery 

 sometimes proves successful. Not unfrequently, however, he 

 proves himself a false prophet, and when all the resources of 

 cunning fail he must fly for his life, from the exasperated 

 victims of his delusion. 



The holy man is also a predictor and a soothsayer. He 

 foretells the success or failure of commercial or warlike ex- 

 peditions, prevents their being undertaken, or fixes the proper 

 time for their commencement. In one word, his influence ex- 

 tends over almost all the occurrences of life, and is all the greater 

 for being based on the abject superstition of his votaries. 



Prayers and sacrifices are the chief religious observances of 

 the Pagan negroes. Like most people all over the world, they 

 pray for health, good weather, rich harvests, or victory over 

 their enemies. After a long continuance of dearth, the Wawas 



