88 



RELIGION. 



a * sympathetic cure ' is the object of the leopard's 

 claw, of the strings of white, black, and blue 

 beads, called Mdugu ga Mulungu (ghost-beads), 

 worn over the shoulder, and of the rags taken 

 from the sick man's body, and hung or fastened 

 to what Europeans call the 'Devil's Tree/ The 

 ' Kehi ' is preferred by the demon-ghost to the 

 patient's person, and thus by mutual agreement 

 both are happy. Some, especially women, have 

 a dozen haunters, each with its peculiar charm : 

 one of them is called, ridiculously enough, 

 ' Barakat,' in Arabic ' a blessing,' and the P.N. 

 of the Ethiopian slave inherited by Mohammed. 



It has not suited the Moslem's purpose to 

 proselytize the Wanyika, who doubtless, like 

 their kinsmen the Wasawahili, would have 

 adopted the Saving Eaith. As it is, the Doruma 

 tribe has been partly converted, and many of 

 the heathen keep the Eamazan fast, feeling 

 themselves raised in the scale of creation by 

 doing something more than their pagan brethren. 

 The ceremonies are the simplest contrivances of 

 savage priestcraft. Births are not celebrated, 

 and the weakly or deformed infant is at once 

 strangled : it is a failure, and as such it is put 

 away. Children become the property of the 

 mother, or rather of her brother, to be disposed of 



