STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 
281 
case of disobedience, the man only is punished, and cases have been 
known where wives who disliked their husbands have accused them 
of breaking this strange law, and have thereby gained a double 
advantage, freed themselves from a man whom they did not like, 
and established a religious reputation on easy terms. 
In fact, the Chitome has things entirely his own way, with one 
exception. He is so holy that he cannot die a natural death, for if 
he did so the universe would immediately be dissolved. Conse¬ 
quently, as soon as he is seized with a dangerous illness, the Chitome 
elect calls at his house, and saves the universe by knocking out his 
brains with a club, or strangling him with a cord if he should prefer 
it. That his own death must be of a similar character has no effect 
upon the new Chitome, who, true to the Negro character, thinks 
only of the present time, and, so far as being anxious about the 
evils that will happen at some future time, does not trouble himself 
even about the next day. 
PRIESTS AS RAIN-MAKERS. 
Next to the Chitome comes the Nghombo, a priest who is distin¬ 
guished by his peculiar gait. His dignity would be impaired by 
walking like ordinary mortals, or even like the inferior priests, and 
so he always walks on his hands with his feet in the air, thereby 
striking awe into the laity. Some of the priests are rain-makers, 
who perform the duties of their office by building little mounds of 
earth and making fetish over them. From the centre of each 
charmed mound rises a strange insect, which mounts into the sky, 
and brings as much rain as the people have paid for. These priests 
are regularly instituted, but there are some who are born to the 
office, such as dwarfs, hunchbacks, and albinos, all of whom are 
highly honored as specially favored individuals, consecrated to the 
priesthood by Nature herself. 
The priests have, as usual, a system of ordeal, the commonest 
mode being the drinking of the poison cup, and the rarest the test 
of the red-hot iron, which is applied to the skin of the accused, and 
burns him if he be guilty. There is no doubt that the magicians are 
acquainted with some preparation which renders the skin proof 
