MY THREE SEA-COWS. 45 



cogitating on the best way of taking the thorn dwellers 

 unawares. I am speaking of the times when Ludonga 

 was king. Of course now, since European influence is 

 extending in the country, it may be very different. 



All Caffres have the most unbounded faith in the 

 innyanga (or moon man). He generally combines the 

 practice of medicine with divination. He usually arrays 

 himself in a grotesque costume and adorns himself with 

 bunches of feathers, bits of wood, bones, and various 

 medicinal roots, until he looks like a peripatetic Christmas- 

 tree. All this affects the imagination of his patients or 

 of those who wish to consult him on mysteries. 



Innyangas are not invariably hypocrites. Many of 

 them are as strongly imbued with belief in their own 

 powers as the dupes who consult them, and I will not 

 go so far as to deny that some of them may not possess 

 clairvoyant faculties, for I have heard of remarkable 

 things done by them. In some instances even Europeans, 

 while pooh-poohing their claims to powers of divination, 

 have consulted them with successful results. 



I do not attempt to explain this, or to put it down ta 

 coincidence, chance or genuine clairvoyance. All I 

 know is that such instances of successful consultation 

 have occurred. 



The usual mode of procedure is as follows. We will 

 assume that a Caffre has lost a black and white cow 

 and wishes to recover it. He goes -off to consult the 

 innyanga. The innyanga puts a series of questions 

 to him, which the Caffre replies to by a stereotyped 

 expression. Now if the innyanga happens to be near 

 the mark, the tone of voice in which his client replies 

 betrays that he has made a good shot. It is like the 

 children's game of hot and cold. 



