THE RAIN-DOCTOR. 



215 



nocence ! ' But the rain did not come, and tlie 

 innocents went away unwhipped. Had the late 

 Pnad Pasha been there he would, before sanc- 

 tioning the assemblage, have consulted a meteor- 

 ologist. 



Near the Line it is easy to predict rain, and 

 with thermometer and hyo:rometer — the latter far 

 better than a barometer — man should neyer make 

 a mistake. The Mganga delays his incantations 

 till mists gather upon the mountain-tops and 

 the Petish is finished, as the cooling air can no 

 longer support the superabundant moisture. 

 Success brings both solid pudding and empty 

 praise : failure, the trifling inconyenience of 

 changing residence. Amongst the fiercer races, 

 howeyer, the Ayizard not unfrequently falls a yic- 

 tim to hope deferred, and there ^tq parts of Africa 

 where, as the yenerable Mr Moffat says, he seldom, 

 if eyer, dies upon his mat. 



The Mganga of Usumbara has manifold duties. 

 He must as often be a rain-stopper as a rain- 

 healer. He sprinkles the stranger with the blood 

 of sheep and other medicines, the aspersory being 

 a cow's tail : upon the departing guest he gently 

 spits, bidding him go in peace and do the people 

 no harm. He marks iyory with masric sisrns, to 

 ensure the tusk safely reaching the coast. Dur- 



