Towards the last year of my own residence in Africa there occurred ten deaths of persons that I was well acquainted with. Of these, four died by violence, three by natural causes, and three by mwai. Of the three that died by natural causes two were living with the English, and their friends were not allowed to be avenged on any bewitcher, so that we believe that the proportion of deaths by mwai is really larger. We have sometimes wondered that the chiefs did not check the operations of the sorcerer, but the following from Lady Barker will throw much light on their position. A Kafir chief said, “You ask me to put down the witch-doctors, but you forget the circumstances of my country. You Englishmen have gaols, policemen and soldiers; I have none of these things, and if I were to prohibit ‘smelling out’ there would be no check whatever upon the criminal classes.” On first finding myself face to face with the above agency of heathenism, I began to reason against it. In my first efforts I took very strong ground, not only denying that witchcraft was possible, but asserting that I did not believe in cannibalism. I even ventured to argue that when these tribes spoke of “eating each other” they “did not and could not mean” that a man literally ate his fellows. But it is a dangerous thing to give a native lessons in his own language, and I was soon convinced that they “did not and could not mean” anything else. But they were generally very fair in controversy. They were unanimous in rejecting my views about cannibalism—“was not human flesh as sweet to the bewitcher as monkeys, beetles and caterpillars were to other people?” But they were willing to admit that the detective while prowling about at midnight might busy herself in burying horns, and they laughed heartily when I volunteered to unearth as many horns as they wanted if they allowed me the same privilege. I am not without hope that the deception may soon come to an end, for the little boys and girls that lived with us used latterly to get up a mock witch-dance for their own amusement, and they acted on hints most willingly given by the “white man,” and implying that the witch-detective buried the horns herself. _Divination._ The following method of divining as described by Mr. Buchanan may conclude this chapter:—