EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 243 



ful poison, known only to themselves, into the ear.* For this there 

 is no cure ; the patient withers away, and dies " when all the flesh 

 has melted off the bones." They bewitch fowls, cattle, crops, 

 everything a man possesses. They make his wives barren, and 

 himself incapable of begetting children. They put enmity be- 

 tween him and his friends. In one word, there is no evil but they 

 practice, and a great deal of the legislation of the country is de- 

 signed to put down this crime, and punish those who are found 

 guilty of it. 



In South Africa war resolves itself into a cattle hunt ; in the 

 lake region of East Central Africa it is largely a slave hunt. A 

 dangerous neighbor or rival can be effectually curbed by carrying 

 away a large number of his subjects and sending them to mar- 

 ket. This resolves war largely into raiding by means of a sudden 

 and unexpected descent. The elaborate preparation of the South 

 would warn the whole country, and while the doctor was engaged 

 " charming " the army, and distributing magic tokens to render 

 the braves invulnerable, the enemy would have put " seven hills " 

 between himself and the advance column. All the same, there is 

 a close resemblance between the war usages of the South and 

 what we find in Central Africa. There we find, especially among 

 the Angoni, the Basuto habit of cutting out an enemy's heart and 

 liver, and eating them on the spot. We also find the habit of 

 mutilation, for the purpose of reducing the parts to ashes, to be 

 stirred into a broth or gruel, which must be " lapped " up with the 

 hand and thrown into the mouth, but not eaten as ordinary food 

 is taken, to give the soldiers courage, perseverance, fortitude, 

 strategy, patience, and wisdom. Should a brave leader retire to 

 a mountain, and die there unconquered, his spirit becomes, accord- 

 ing to Yao tradition, the guardian of the rain clouds that gather 

 there, and to him offerings and prayers are presented at the great 

 national gatherings for rain. Mantanga inhabits Mangohi, the 

 mountain the Yao remember as their home, and to him they pray 

 and sacrifice for rain. He is liberal to his children, and bestows 

 great plenty. Chitowe, on the other hand, is surly, and is associ- 

 ated with drought, famine, and leanness. He sometimes appears 

 as an emaciated child or a young woman. These, and many others, 

 are the spirits of warriors who perished centuries before the white 

 man came to bring a new and terrible implement of destruction, 

 and to introduce strange customs and stranger gods to people 

 whose ways have been uniform since before the Flood. 



Death is largely caused by wizards. The very introduction of 

 death into the world has a suspicious look of witchcraft about it ; 

 in any case, it was caused by a woman who taught two men to go 



* Manganga, Angoni, Yao, Walolo. 



