There is a great deal of suffering in African villages silently and patiently borne; and the white doctor can do a great deal to alleviate it. I can assure you children that your pennies put into the missionary box to help to support hospitals in heathen lands are not given in vain; and there is no part of missionary work that more deserves your help. Remember what our Lord said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” CHAPTER XIV MAGIC MEDICINE In the previous chapter we were talking about doctors and medicine. In this chapter we shall hear more about medicine, but of another kind. Medicine in Africa is of two kinds--one for the lawful purpose of healing the sick, the other for the unlawful purpose of bewitching people and doing other dark deeds. It is when we begin to look into all that surrounds this unlawful medicine that we meet “the heathen in his darkness.” The black people firmly believe in the power of medicines to bewitch, to enable the possessor to steal or to do some other thing equally bad. Anything that happens for which they cannot account, they ascribe to witchcraft medicine. The white people are supposed to be the possessors of great stores of such medicine, and from that to obtain their power. This belief crops up on all sides in their daily life, for there are unlawful medicines for almost everything. All one requires to know is where to find a dealer in such medicine, and he will make it to your order, no matter what you may want it for. He will give you medicine to bury against your enemy that he may die, or he will make you medicine that will enable you to kill game easily. Everything can be done by the power of medicine. The darkest part of this belief in medicines is that in which certain people are supposed to possess power to cause the death of others that they may feast upon their dead bodies. Such horrible people are called “Afiti” in this part of Africa. They are supposed through their medicine to have powers of making themselves invisible at will, of going great distances in the smallest interval of time, of changing themselves into beasts, etc. These “Afiti” are supposed to gather during the night round the grave of any recently buried person to call the dead man out and to feast upon him. The bark of a fox or the hoot of an owl at night is said to be the signal call for these wretches to assemble for their awful meal.