360 SUPERSTITIONS 



sea, and that the adaptability they now display to 



a mode of life such as that which they have adopted 



on dry land is a matter of comparatively recent 



acquirement. 



The superstition of witchcraft already referred 

 to, which induces such practices as recourse to the 

 poison ordeal and other " proofs," takes at times 

 a particularly interesting though intensely horrible 

 form, namely that the person exercising it has the 

 power to turn him or herself into a hyena, or other 

 animal, for the purpose of committing the unim- 

 aginable crime of cannibalism. The story will be 

 remembered, in my chapter on the Barud District, 

 of the old woman Dzango, who lusted to devour 

 the unfortunate girl she did to death. In like 

 manner, T believe there is, at times, a ghastly form 

 of mania among certain of the black races which 

 awakens in them an unconquerable yearning for 

 human flesh. Whence it arises, whether from 

 some strange recrudescence of the old-time canni- 

 balistic habit, to which centuries ago practically all 

 the dwellers in this part of Africa were addicted, 

 or not, one cannot of course say. In the native 

 mind it is now almost universally connected with 

 sorcery, the supposition being that the wizard, by 

 means of mysterious spells, compasses the death of 

 his unhappy victim, and that immediately after the 

 burial he changes himself into a carnivorous animal, 

 and disinters the corpse, which he devours. In 

 many parts of the country, where the smallest 

 suspicion exists that death may be due to occult 

 causes, the most elaborate precautions are taken to 

 prevent the violation of the grave, and these, added 



