THE POISON ORDEAL 



or doctor is consulted with a view to the matter 

 being cleared up. In not a few cases death is 

 ascribed to witchcraft, and it follows, therefore, that 

 every possible step be now taken to discover the 

 person guilty of so detestable a crime. As a rule 

 suspicion falls, as it was wont to fall years ago in 

 England, upon some unfortunate, well stricken in 

 years, who, by reason of eccentricity or peculiarity 

 of mind or body, suggests a guilty connection with 

 the events which terminated in the death. An 

 accusation is, therefore, made and indignantly re- 

 pudiated. There is now only one course — the 

 Poison Ordeal, or the drinking of the Mwavi. Even 

 to this day the average native has a firm innate 

 faith in the infallibility of the Mwavi, and the con- 

 fidence with which they invoke it to clear them of 

 suspicion of wrong-doing is still very deep-rooted 

 and wide-spread. On a given day, therefore, the 

 Kambaiassa, accompanied by his assistant — the 

 Sapenda — mixes the dreary potion in a small cala- 

 bash gourd. It consists of an infusion of the bark 

 of a tree common throughout South Central Africa, 

 and known as the Erythrophlceum. To this the 

 blood of a fowl is added in some districts, and it is 

 heated by means of red-hot stones. The Sapenda 

 now hands this dreadful compound to the suspected 

 person, who drinks it eagerly, and, according to 

 their superstition, his innocence or guilt must im- 

 mediately be made manifest, for in the first case 

 the powerful irritant poison is vomited and no harm 

 ensues, whilst in the second death is as certain as 

 it is terrible. Of course the whole secret lies in 

 the strength of the dose administered, which if it 



