448 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
a fire is seen on a distant hill where no fire should be, ‘there is the light of 
their cooking fire.’ ” 
The grave is supposed to be alight, to shine with a phosphorescent light 
where the Mfiti gather. It is said that the wizards summon the dead 
man by the name of his childhood which he laid aside on his initiation. Such 
a summons he cannot resist. He emerges from the grave even if it be through 
a small hole, then the wizards torture him and knock him down, divide him 
limb from limb, cook the flesh and eat it. 
Naturally with beliefs like this it is the constant object of the more 
wholesome-minded natives to discover and destroy the abominable sorcerers, 
and some people are supposed to possess great powers as witch-finders. 
These may be male or female ; more often than not they are elderly women. 
The witch-finder is sent for after the death has occurred and stays for some 
time in the village cross-questioning everyone she can get hold of. She 
pretends to have much the same power as the witches, and by means of 
medicines and charms to be able to track the witches at night-time in their 
transformed shapes. Having thus professed to attend the witches’ sabbath 
she discovers the names by which they are addressed among themselves, and 
then by her own occult powers identifies these assumed names with the 
appellations they are known by in the village. 
Negroes are gulled most easily and by the rudest sleight-of-hand. They 
will believe almost any stories they are told. Probably what the witch-finder 
really does is to listen to all the gossip of the village and by observation to 
ascertain (i) if any particular person had a grudge against the deceased and 
(2) if there is anyone in the place who probably has a leaning to the horrible 
practice of rifling the grave and eating decayed human flesh. If she believes 
herself to have alighted on such a person then she affects to have arrived at 
the knowledge through supernatural means, and clothes her denunciation with 
the sanction of the occult. When she has made up her mind she summons 
the people together. All the inhabitants of the village must attend. The 
witch-finder then commences a fantastic dance in which she works herself up 
to the condition of seeming epilepsy. She tears round the informal circle of 
spectators, dashes first at one then at another, affects to smell them to see if 
she can discover the odour of putrefying meat; at last she pronounces the 
name of the person, the name which she is supposed to have heard at the 
witches’ sabbath. No one replies. Then the witch-finder says “that is the 
name by which the Mfiti is known to the other sorcerers: his or her real 
name is such and such.” Persons thus accused have to submit to the Muavi 
ordeal to prove their innocence. The most remarkable thing about the whole 
procedure is that the witch-finder’s allegations are sometimes supported by 
the supposed culprit who, either from a desire to enjoy renown as a wizard 
(with the hope of vomiting the Muavi and thus escaping the consequences), 
or because he or she may really believe through disordered dreams that they 
have the power to do such things, submits unhesitatingly to the ordeal and 
does not attempt to escape. 
No doubt it rests a good deal with the individual who prepares the Muavi , 
to make the dose strong enough to prove fatal or weak enough to act merely as 
an emetic. 
A considerable amount of bribery is sometimes resorted to by the accused 
or accused’s friends. If, however, the muavi remains in the stomach, and 
the wretched creature is unable to vomit, a murderous madness seizes the 
