TRIBAL CUSTOMS 95 
Divination from figures drawn in the sand by sifting, sprinkling or cutting is 
considered of very great importance, and can only properly be performed by a 
Moslem. Advice on almost every important subject is sought by this means. 
The sand sifter decides what form the sacrifice should take, why the hunter has 
not had good luck, whether injuries have been caused by man or by animal, 
whether a man has been murdered by a human being, or killed by a leopard. 
He also predicts success or failure in various ventures, and provides medicine 
for different ailments. His most mysterious power lies in his supposed mastery 
of the art of poisoning. In an entirely unexplained way, it is claimed that he 
can poison your water or food, or an object so that if you touch it you will die. 
He can even provide a poison that will act at a distance. If, for example, a 
person places some of it under the finger nail and waves the hand, it will be car- 
ried to an absent enemy. 
Among the interior tribes, the ideas regarding charms, medicines and poisons 
seem to be closely related. Illness is regarded as being caused by an evil spirit, 
and hence the medicine man is called in to drive it away or placate it. Evil 
charms often are associated with the sputum, which should be quickly covered 
by sand or earth. Hair, and cuttings from the nails, are also of bad omen and 
should be burned. At certain times the excrement is considered to be poisonous, 
and should be placed in running water to be carried away. 
Medicines and Poisons. Among the remedies that they may employ, little has 
been found of any distinct value. The snail shell is supposed to have special pow- 
ers for healing wounds. Sometimes the whole snail is put into the wound; at other 
times the shell is powdered and the powder placed on it. Powders of the bark 
of the silk cotton tree, Ceiba, made from the thoroughly charred wood, and the 
skin of plantains also charred, are sometimes given internally. In some instances 
the method of treatment of the ailment can only be determined by the medicine 
man by the killing of some animal such as a fowl, and examining the movements 
of the intestines. Snake bite is sometimes treated by sucking the wound with the 
mouth. Severe bruises or contusions are also sometimes treated by sucking, 
and the poison is said to be withdrawn in this way. The medicine man may 
afterwards take from his mouth a piece of stone or wood or leather, and explain 
that it is the cause of the trouble. An aching limb or abdomen is sometimes 
lightly rubbed with the hands, and sometimes lightly scarified with a knife. 
They still talk of pain as something caged and confined that can be set at 
liberty by cupping and blood letting. They tie a string round the temples to 
cure a headache. They try to relieve pain in the abdomen by painting the body 
with colored clay and to cure giddiness by ‘‘mpuluka” bark specially treated 
with oil and salt. Lung symptoms are sometimes treated with cassava water 
containing the essence of madiadia grass and the leaf of the kuva and kiakasa 
plant. For colic they give copious draughts of a fluid made from cassava root 
and the fruit of the lembenzau. They make suppositories from the juice of 
sudia leaves, salted and peppered. Poultices of cassava meal and acacia gum 
spread on certain leaves are also employed to heal wounds. For eye trouble some 
of the tribes use onion juice and salt, or powdered shell and molasses, lotus leaves 
