352 ETHNOLOGY 



bamboo serves as a rod, and a fragment of the 

 pith of the bango-reed is utihsed as a float. Fish- 

 hooks of European manufacture are now in 

 general use. 



With regard to sickness, the African is a 

 singularly bad patient, and immediately becomes 

 despondent, dying in many cases from sheer want 

 of force of character to enable him to make up 

 his mind to get well again. In their own villages, 

 this want of power to assist by their own eflfbrts 

 the ministrations of the Nganga or Kambaiassa is 

 aided in the frequently fatal termination of even 

 a simple malady by the belief that the sick man is 

 the victim of witchcraft, and that the hope of re- 

 covery were, therefore, futile. I fancy they have 

 a much greater faith in the efforts of European 

 doctors than they have in those of their own, for 

 the childlike faith the native has in the power of 

 the white man supports his belief in the efficacy 

 of the treatment he receives. 



