Africa
(See Arabs, Egypt, Semites. The north of Africa is Mohammedan. This applies also to the Sudan and the Sahara. For Moorish Magic and Alchemy see Arabs.
Instances of Arabic sorcery will also be found in the article "Semites." In West Africa Obeah is practised, for which see West Indies.) “ Magic in savage Africa is of the lower cultus, and chiefly of the kind known as sympathetic." (See Magic.) But spiritualistic influence shows itself in fetishism, the cult of the dead, ju-ju or witchcraft, and the cult of the witchdoctor. Bantu Tribes. Among the Zulu and other Bantu tribes the cult of witchcraft was practised, but in secret, for the results of detection were terrible. For the tracking of the witch, a caste of witch-finders was instituted, called "witchdoctors," whose duty it was to "smell out" the offenders. These were nearly all women. “ Africa ** It is not difficult to understand," says Lady Barker, bearing in mind the superstition and cruelty which existed in remote parts of England not so very long ago; how powerful such women become among a savage people, or how tempting an opportunity they could furnish of getting rid of an enemy. Of course they are exceptional individuals; more observant, more shrewd, and more dauntless than the average fat, hard-working Kaffir women, besides possessing the contradictory mixture of great physical powers and strong hysterical tendencies. They work themselves up to a pitch of frenzy, and get to believe as firmly in their own supernatural discernment as any individual among the trembling circle of Zulus to whom a touch from the whisk they carry is a sentence of instant death."
The Zulu witch-finders are attended by a circle of black girls and women, who, like a Greek chorus, clap their hands together, and drone through a low monotonous chant, the measure and rhythm of which change at times with a stamp and a swing. Not less necessary is a ceremonial dress; for such things appeal directly to the imagination of the crowd, and prepare them to be readily influenced by the necromancer's devices. The Isinyanga," "Abangoma or “ " witch-finders," whom Lady Barker describes for us, were attired with an eye for effect which would have done credit to a London theatre. It will suffice to depict one of them, by name Nozinyanga. Her fierce face, spotted with gouts of red paint on cheek and brow, was partly overshadowed by a helmet-like plume of the tall feathers of the sakabula bird. In her right hand she carried a light sheaf of assegais or lances, and on her left arm was slung a small and pretty shield of dappled ox-hide. Her petticoat, made of a couple of large gay handkerchiefs, was worn kilt-wise. But if there were little decoration in her skirts, the deficiency was more than compensated by the bravery of the bead-necklaces, the goat's-hair fringes, and the scarlet tassels which covered her from coat to waist. Her ample chest rose and fell beneath the baldric of leopard skin, fastened across it with huge brazen knobs, while down her back hung a beautifully dried and flattened skin of an enormous boa-constrictor.
When the community had resolved that a certain misfortune was due to the witches, the next step obviously would be to detect and punish them. For this purpose the king would summon a great meeting, and cause his subjects to sit on the ground in a ring or circle for four or five days. The witch-finders took their places in the centre, and as they gradually worked themselves up to a frantic state of frenzy, resembling demoniacal possession, they lightly switched with their quagga-tail one or other of the trembling spectators, who was immediately dragged away and butchered on the spot. And not only he, but all the living things in his hut-wives and children, dogs and cats-not one was left alive, nor was a stick left standing. Sometimes a whole kraal would be exterminated in this way, and the reader will perceive how terrible the cruel custom could be made to gratify private revenge or to work the king's tyrannical inclinations.
A terrible little sorceress is described by Lady Barker under the name of Nozilwane, whose weird wistful glance had in it something uncanny and uncomfortable. She was dressed beautifully for her part, in lynx skins folded over and over from waist to knee, the upper part of her body being covered by strings of wild beasts' teeth and fangs, beads, skeins of gaily-coloured yarn, strips of snake's skin, and fringes of Angora goat fleece. This, as a decoration, was both graceful and effective; it was worn round the body and above each elbow, and fell in soft white flakes among the brilliant colouring and against the dusky skin. Lynx-tails depended like lappets on each side of " her face, which was over-shadowed and almost hidden by a profusion of sakabula feathers. This bird," says Lady Barker, "has a very beautiful plumage, and is sufficiently rare for the natives to attach a peculiar value and charm to the tail-feathers; they are like those of a young cock, curved and slender, and of a dark chesnut colour, with a white eye at the extreme tip of each feather." Among all this thick, floating plumage were interspersed small bladders, and skewers or pins wrought out of tusks. Each witch-finder wore her own hair, or rather wool, highly greased and twisted up with twine until it ceases to wear the appearance of hair, and hangs around the face like a thick fringe, dyed deep red. a
Bent double, and with a creeping, cat-like gait, as if seeking a trail, out stepped Nozilwane. Every movement of her undulating body kept time to the beat of the girls' hands and their low crooning chant. Presently she pretended to find the thing she sought, and with a series of wild pirouettes, leaped into the air, shaking her spears and brandishing her little shield like a Bacchante.
Nowamso, another of the party, was determined that her companion should not carry off all the applause, and she too, with a yell and a leap, sprang into the dance to the sound of louder grunts and harder hand-claps. Nowamso showed much anxiety to display her back, where a magnificent snake skin, studded in a regular pattern with brassheaded nails, floated like a stream. She was attired also in a splendid kilt of leopard skins, decorated with red rosettes, and her toilet was considered more careful and artistic than any of the others. Brighter her bangles, whiter her goat-fringes, and more elaborately painted her face. Nozilwane, however, had youth and a wonderful self-reliance on her side. The others, though they all joined in and hunted out an imaginary enemy, and in turn exulted over his discovery, soon became breathless and spent, and were glad when their attendants led them away to be anointed and to drink water.
Central Africa. The magical beliefs of Central and Eastern Africa are but little known. They are for the most part connected with the cult of the dead and that of the fetish. As regards the first :- When the dead are weary of staying in the bush, they come for one of their people whom they most affect. And the spirit will say to the man : "I am tired of dwelling in the bush, please to build for me in the town a little house as close as possible to your own." And he tells him to dance and sing too, and accordingly the man assembles the women at night to join in dance and song.
Then, next day, the people repair to the grave of the Obambo, or ghost, and make a rude idol, after which the bamboo bier, on which the body is conveyed to the grave, and some of the dust of the ground, are carried into a little hut erected near the house of the visited, and a white cloth is draped over the door.
It is a curious fact, which seems to show that these people have a legend something like the old Greek myth of Charon and the Styx, that in one of the songs chanted during this ceremony occurs the following line: You are well dressed, but you have no canoe to carry you across to the other side." " Possession. Epileptic diseases, in almost all uncivilised countries, are assumed to be the result of demoniac possession. In Central Africa the sufferer is supposed to be possessed by Mbwiri, and he can be relieved only by the intervention of the medicine-man or fetish. In the middle of the street a hut is built for his accommodation, and there he resides until cured, or maddened, along with the priest and his disciples. There for ten days or a fortnight a continuous revel is held; much eating and drinking at the expense of the patient's relatives, and unending dances عد Africa to the sound of flute and drum. For obvious reasons the fetish gives out that Mbwiri regards good living with aversion. The patient dances, usually shamming madness, until the epileptic attack comes on, with all its dreadful concomitants-the frenzied stare, the convulsed limbs, the gnashing teeth, and the foam-flecked lips. The man's actions at this period are not ascribed to himself, but to the demon which has control of him. When a cure has been effected, real or pretended, the patient builds a little fetishhouse, avoids certain kinds of food, and performs certain duties. Sometimes the process terminates in the patient's insanity; he has been known to run away to the bush, hide from all human beings, and live on the roots and berries of the forest. ،، "
These fetish-men," says Read, are priest doctors, like those of the ancient Germans. They have a profound knowledge of herbs, and also of human nature, for they always monopolise the real power in the state. But it is very doubtful whether they possess any secrets save that of extracting virtue and poison from plants. During the first trip which I made into the bush I sent for one of these doctors. At that time I was staying among the Shekani, who are celebrated for their fetish. He came attended by half-a-dozen disciples. He was a tall man dressed in white, with a girdle of leopard's skin, from which hung an iron bell, of the same shape as our sheep bells. He had two chalk marks over his eyes. I took some of my own hair, frizzled it with a burning glass, and gave it to him. He popped it with alacrity into his little grass bag; for white man's hair is fetish of the first order. Then I poured out some raspberry vinegar into a glass, drank a little of it first, country fashion, and offered it to him. telling him that it was blood from the brains of great doctors. Upon this he received it with great reverence, and dipping his fingers into it as if it was snap-dragon, sprinkled with it his forehead, both feet between the two first toes, and the ground behind his back. He then handed his glass to a disciple, who emptied it, and smacked his lips afterwards in a very secular manner. I then desired to see a little of his fetish. He drew on the ground with red chalk some hieroglyphics, among which I distinguished the circle, the cross, and the crescent. He said that if I would give him a fine 'dush,' he would tell me all about it. But as he would not take anything in reason, and as I knew that he would tell me nothing of very great importance in public, negotiations were suspended." The fetish-man seldom finds a native disposed to question his claim of supernatural powers. He is not only a doctor and a priest-two capacities in which his influence is necessarily very powerful-he is also a witch-finder, and this is an office which invests him with a truly formidable authority. When a man of worth dies, his death is invariably ascribed to witchcraft, and the aid of the fetishman is invoked to discover the witch. “ When a man is sick a long time, they call Ngembi, and if she cannot make him well, the fetish-man. He comes at night, in a white dress, with cock's feathers on his head, and having his bell and little glass. He calls two or three relations together into a room. He does not speak, but always looks in his glass. Then he tells them that the sickness is not of Mbwiri, nor of Obambo, nor of God, but What that it comes from a witch. They say to him, shall we do? He goes out and says, I have told you.
I have no more to say." They give him a dollar's worth of cloth, and every night they gather together in the street, and they cry, "I know that man who bewitched my brother. It is good for you to make him well." Then the witch makes him well. But if the man do not recover they call the bush doctor from the Shekani country. He sings in the language of the bush. At night he goes into the street; دو all the people flock about him. With a tiger-cat skin in his hand, he walks to and fro, until, singing all the while, he lays the tiger-skin at the feet of the witch. At the conclusion of his song the people seize the witch, and put him or her in chains, saying, "If you don't restore our brother to health, we will kill you."