Since evidence is of such small importance, how can the natives ever discover criminals? They cannot use the poisoned cup for mere discovery, because no freemen can be compelled to drink it without a reason. They encounter a peculiar difficulty here, but they have a peculiar remedy. Their method may be explained by showing how it works in the case of theft. When a man finds his goods stolen and can get no trace of the thief, he applies to the sorcerer. This personage takes up the case, inspects the dry bones in his calabash, and in a short time is able to declare the thief. The sorcerer usually trusts to his calabash alone, but occasionally he makes men lay hold of a stick which after a time begins to move as if endowed with life, and ultimately carries them off bodily and with great speed to the house of the thief. When his divination is completed, the sorcerer announces that he has “detected” (kamula) the thief and then formally names him to the owner of the stolen goods. The latter goes to the alleged thief, tells him that he has been detected by the “oracle” and boldly charges him with the crime. When the theft is proved either by the thief’s confession, or by the ordeal (75), the pursuer demands his goods and a fine besides, and holds the headman of the thief’s village responsible. It is always assumed, and generally correctly, not only that the headman knows[9] of every theft committed by his villagers, but that he has even received part of the plunder. Where the accused party, in spite of the verdict of the oracle denies the crime and survives the poisoned cup, the result brings discredit on the sorcerer. As the poison is the infallible test, the sorcerer is proved to have “detected” the wrong party. He accordingly loses his fee, and the pursuer is not likely to put confidence in him again. Should the pursuer still hope to recover his goods, he applies to another sorcerer, but the latter must not “detect” the party that has just been accused. A person cannot be asked to drink poison twice for the same charge. _Caught in the Act._