NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 451 
occurs amongst the Wankonde. They use a divining stick—apparently a long 
flexible wand which has been partly bent or snapped below the portion seized 
by the hand, so that it is provided with a kind of hinge and is susceptible 
to the least tremor. When a person is accused of stealing they commence 
by burning certain roots in a fire. The rod is then shaken over the fire while 
simultaneously they call upon the spirits of the departed to use it as a means 
of enabling the diviner to discover the thief. The thief-finder then starts off 
on his quest much as a thought-reader might do. Whichever way the rod 
waggles the diviner follows and at last he affects to have been led to a certain 
house, the owner of which is taken to be the thief. 
Another widespread belief lies in the power of certain wizards to make lions 
or other wild beasts or to inspire such as are naturally created with a mission to 
destroy. Dr. Cross informs me that there is a man in the Bundale country at 
the north end of Lake Nyasa who is believed to make lions. He is very old and 
lives in great seclusion, and is said to have several lions lying in the long grass 
surrounding his house. He can make these lions do his will, and if properly 
paid will undertake the commission of sending the lions to a specified neighbour¬ 
hood to devour or harass the people. Should one man have a dispute with 
another he can enforce his case powerfully by these means. “ I have frequently 
been astonished,” writes Dr. Cross, “ to see how tenaciously even the most 
intelligent cling to this belief. They are firmly convinced that lions do not 
roam aimlessly but are sent to a neighbourhood with a definite object in view.” 
When we were preparing our expedition to fight the great slave-raiding 
chief, Matipwiri (to the east of Mount Mlanje in South Nyasaland), he sent to 
another Yao chief, Zarafi, for assistance. Zarafi could not aid him in men or 
guns but sent his son, who was reputed to be a wizard, to make spells which 
should raise up all the lions, leopards, and hyenas in Matipwiri’s country 
against the invading force. These animals were to meet us half way in the 
wilderness and utterly destroy us. The absurd thing was that Matipwiri 
and his brother chief Mtiramanja, although they were intelligent men (Matipwiri 
had once obtained, probably from a trader, the full uniform of a Portuguese 
colonel, and used to style himself a colonel in the Portuguese Army!), who had 
constant intercourse with the coast, they nevertheless believed in the super¬ 
natural powers of Kadewere, the wizard referred to ; and were so convinced 
that the wild animals would stop us from coming that they remained in their 
villages until our troops entered the suburbs. Even then on the first day of 
our invasion they made but a faint resistance, so astounded were they that 
the lions and leopards had not obeyed the orders of their master to harass our 
expedition. 
Amongst other beliefs is a certain dread of women who are menstruating. 
It is thought that if a woman in this condition puts salt into the food her 
husband or child eating the food will then become ill and hot and feverish, with 
a bad cough. Also it is believed that if a husband or wife has been guilty 
of adultery and while under the shadow of the fault puts salt into the food the 
children eating thereof will fall sick. 
A belief that certain persons have power over the atmosphere so that they 
can make rain fall or wind rise or drop is universal, though it is not perhaps such 
a prominent subject of consideration as in Africa south of the Zambezi where 
the gradual desiccation of the country makes the fall of a shower a crying 
necessity. 
At the north end of Lake Nyasa there was an old rain-maker named 
