Chap. II. NATIVE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 51 



The native medical profession is reasonably well repre- 

 sented. In addition to the regular practitioners, who are a 

 really useful class, and know something of their profession, 

 and the nature and power of certain medicines, there are others 

 who devote their talents to some speciality. The elephant 

 doctor prepares a medicine which is considered indispensable 

 to the hunters when attacking that noble and sagacious 

 beast ; no hunter is willing to venture out before investing 

 in this precious nostrum. The crocodile doctor sells a charm 

 which is believed to possess the singular virtue of protecting 

 its owner from crocodiles. Unwittingly we offended the 

 crocodile school of medicine while at Tette, by shooting one 

 of these huge reptiles as it lay basking in the sun on a 

 sandbank; the doctors came to the Makololo in wrath, cla- 

 mouring to know why the white man had shot their crocodile. 



A shark's hook was baited one evening with a dog, 

 of which the crocodile is said to be particularly fond; 

 but the doctors removed the bait, on the principle 

 that the more crocodiles the more demand for medicine, 

 or perhaps because they preferred to eat the dog them- 

 selves. Many of the natives of this quarter are known, 

 as in the South Seas, to eat the dog without paying any 

 attention to its feeding. The dice doctor or diviner is 

 an important member of the community, being consulted by 

 Portuguese and natives alike. Part of his business is that of 

 a detective, it being his duty to discover thieves. When goods 

 are stolen, he goes and looks at the place, casts his dice, and 

 waits a few days, and then, for a consideration, tells who is the 

 thief: he is generally correct, for he trusts not to his dice 

 alone ; he has confidential agents all over the village, by whose 

 inquiries and information he is enabled to detect the culprit. 

 Since the introduction of muskets, gun-doctors have sprung 



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