22 BAIN-MEDICINE. Chap. I. 



it be that they have the power of combining the oxygen and 

 hydrogen of their vegetable food by vital force so as to form 

 water ? * 



Rain, however, would not fall ; the Bakwains believed that I 

 had bound Sechele with some magic spell, and I received depu- 

 tations hi the evenings, of the old counsellors, entreating me to 

 allow Mm to make only a few showers : " The corn will die if you 

 refuse, and we shall become scattered. Oidy let him make rain 

 tins once, and we shall all, men, women, and children, come to 

 the school and sing and pray as long as you please." It was in 

 vain to protest that I wished Sechele to act just according to Ins 

 own ideas of what was right, as he found the law laid down hi the 

 Bible ; and it was distressing to appear hard-hearted to them. 

 The clouds often collected promisingly over us, and rolling 

 thunder seemed to portend refreshing showers, but next morning 

 the sun would rise in a clear cloudless sky ; indeed, even these 

 lowering appearances were less frequent by far than days of sun- 

 shine are in London. 



The natives, finding it irksome to sit and wait helplessly until 

 God gives them ram from heaven, entertam the more comfort- 

 able idea that they can help themselves by a variety of prepara- 

 tions, such as charcoal made of burned bats, inspissated renal 

 deposit of the mountam coney {Hyrax capensis) (which by the 

 way is used in the form of pills as a good anti-spasmodic, 

 under the name of " stone-sweat " f ), the internal parts of 

 different animals — as jackals' livers, baboons' and lions' hearts, 

 and hairy calculi from the bowels of old cows — serpents' skins and 

 vertebrae, and every kind of tuber, bulb, root, and plant to be 

 found in the country. Although you disbelieve their efficacy hi 

 chamiing the clouds to pour out then refreshing treasures, yet, 

 conscious that civility is useful everywhere, you kindly state that 

 you think they are mistaken as to their power ; the rain-doctor 

 selects a particular bulbous root, pounds it, and administers a 

 cold infusion to a sheep, which in five minutes afterwards expires 



* When we come to Angola I shall describe an insect there which distils 

 several pints of water every night. 



f The name arises from its being always voided on one spot, in the manner 

 practised by others of the rhinocerontiue family ; and by the action of the sun 

 it becomes a black pitchy substance. 



