94 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO. 



them, but strong long sticks do, and with these a man can 

 drive them before him until at dawn they can be seen and 

 recognised. The passion for human flesh runs in certain 

 families, and is hereditary. The members of these families are 

 useless as servants, and their girls make good-for-nothing 

 wives, for they are perverse, and will not eat every kind of 

 food. Such families like to introduce new blood by making 

 matches in far- distant places. Girls from the neighbourhood 

 will not stay with them, but run away, and will not reveal 

 what they have seen. Women have the monopoly of a 

 certain power of charming, which consists in bewitching vege- 

 table or animal food with their eyes, and then giving it to 

 some one to eat, who is immediately seized with violent pains 

 in the stomach, which do not pass off until the charmer is 

 brought and spits three times on the body of the sufferer. 

 The belief in the evil eye, both of men and women, is 

 universal ; means of protecting oneself against it do not exist. 



The cutting of children's upper incisors before the lower 

 appears to be feared as bringing misfortune, and when it 

 Occurs, the mhandua (magician) is at once summoned to per- 

 form certain dances for the protection of the child, and is 

 rewarded by a goat. Such dances, indeed, constitute a 

 universal remedy for sickness. Epilepsy (?isimbo) is common, 

 but is not considered hereditary ; girls afflicted with this 

 disease have a difficulty in finding husbands, and are frequently 

 married without payment of the equivalent in cows. A remedy 

 for the disease is unknown. 



Insanity (ilalu), and also temporary mental aberration, are 

 frequent ; the latter is treated with herbal remedies, which 

 effect an immediate cure by means of sleep and sweating. 

 Polydactylism is rare. If the superfluous fingers are noticed 

 at birth, they are at once removed ; otherwise they are left. 

 Smallpox (blunchi) is much dreaded ; as soon as any one is 

 attacked by it, and the pustules are filled with matter, they 

 are opened and washed with lukewarm water. As often as 

 fresh matter is formed, the process is repeated, yet the sufferers 

 usually die. Vaccination is quite unknown. Syphilis (kctbre- 

 venju) is very prevalent, but I have never noticed widespread 

 disorganisation, and a tendency to self-healing always predomi- 



