[Sidenote: The Wanika of East Africa.] The Wanika of East Africa “believe in the power and efficacy of charms and amulets, and they wear them in great variety; legs, arms, neck, waist, hair, and every part of the body are laden with them, either for the cure or prevention of disease; for the expulsion or repulsion of evil spirits; and to keep at bay snakes, wild animals, and every other evil. {39} They hang painted calabashes from the baobab at their hut doors to keep away thieves; shells, dolls, eggs scratched over with Arabic characters by the _Wana Chuoni_ (sons of the book) of the coast, are placed about their plantations and in their fruit-trees, and they believe that death would overtake a thief who should disregard them. A charm bound to the leg of a fowl is ample protection for the village. There is no doubt that, superstitious as the people are, they dread running great risks for the sake of small gains, and so these charms answer their purpose.”[39.1] [Sidenote: The Boloki of the Congo.] Among the Boloki of the Upper Congo, when a woman finds that the cassava roots, which she keeps soaking in a water-hole, are being stolen, she takes a piece of gum copal, and fixing it in the cleft of a split stick she puts it on the side of the hole, while at the same time she calls down a curse on the thief. If the thief is a man, he will henceforth have no luck in fishing; if she is a woman, she will have no more success in farming.[39.2] The Ekoi of Southern Nigeria protect their farms against thieves by bundles of palm leaves to which they give the name of _okpata_. Should any one steal from a farm thus protected, he will fall sick and will not recover unless he gives a certain dance, to which the name of _okpata_ is also applied.[39.3]