NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 441 
used to stupefy fish and to poison arrows.) The thief or person wishing to 
escape consumes some himself, believing that it renders him invisible. It is 
possible that this belief might arise from the action of the drug which taken 
in quantities not large enough to cause death merely brings about a temporary 
insensibility. A case illustrating this occurred once at Fort Johnston, and is 
referred to in my review of the History in Chapter IV. 1 
While on the one hand medicines are supposed to give thieves good luck 
in stealing, on the other, counter-charms buried in the house or garden will 
protect property against thieves. Very often these charms are hung up on 
sticks at the entrance to plantations. Again, other medicines will bring good 
luck in the shooting of wild animals, or when fixed in some way to the stock 
of the gun will enable the possessor to shoot straight in time of war ; while 
there are innumerable recipes for rendering one’s person safe from risks in 
warfare. The natives have a firm belief in this last. White men exhibiting 
bravery in battle, or gaining victory after victory, are simply said to possess 
“war medicine” which renders them both invulnerable and bound to succeed. 
These negroes can sometimes be made recklessly brave by their firm belief 
in the medicine of some particular chief. Not until many of them have fallen 
on the field of battle will they lose faith in the potency of the chief’s charms. 
These medicines are sometimes heterogeneous substances reduced to powder 
and enclosed in the horns of small antelopes. Drugs which are supposed 
to act by occult means are thrown at the person whom they are intended 
to influence, or they may simply be buried, and, as it were, dedicated to him, 
sometimes in the vicinity of his habitation. 
The poison ordeal is universal as a custom and prevails over the greater 
part of pagan Negro Africa, the same substance being used throughout for the 
ordeal. This is known in British Central Africa as Muavi, or Mwai, and 
is made of the triturated bark of the Erythrophlceum guineense. Certain indi¬ 
viduals undertake as a kind of trade the special business of pounding the 
Muavi bark. It is usually prepared in a small wooden mortar, with a wooden 
pestle. The water is gradually mixed with the bark as it is being pounded and 
this is generally done just when the stuff is wanted so that it may be drunk 
fresh. 
Natives are despondent patients in sickness in their own communities, 
as illness is so often ascribed to witchcraft, and they believe themselves to 
be in the power of some evil-disposed witch or wizard, who has doomed them 
to death and whose spells are stronger than those of the friendly medicine man. 
But they have an almost sublime faith in the European doctor and in his hands 
they are usually confident of recovery while their remarkable insensibility 
to pain makes them admirable subjects for operations. Many things may 
be done to a Central African negro without anaesthetics which in the case 
of a European or Indian would not only require the application of chloroform 
or ether, but might even then prove to be too severe a shock to the system for 
subsequent recovery. It has been remarkable sometimes, after one of our 
1 Msamara, a chief, had been imprisoned in Fort Johnston. His friends were allowed to have access 
to him and brought him one day a horn of medicine which was probably powdered Strophanthus. The 
next night he took a dose and stripped off his clothes (the idea being that the clothes could not be 
rendered invisible) and attempted, stark naked, to walk out of his prison. On the Sikh sentries, who were 
not asleep, presenting their bayonets, Msamara had to retire to the cell once more and explain away 
the matter next morning by saying that he had been walking in his sleep. The following night, however, 
he apparently took an extra strong dose of Strophanthus and was found lying dead with the empty 
horn of medicine in his hand and all his clothes removed. 
