When a trial of this sort is decided on, the _mapondera_, or ‘pounder,’ is sent for. He prepares the poison in the _bwalo_, before the assembled people, by pounding the bark, steeped in water, in a small wooden mortar, with a pestle which has a cover fixed round it to prevent the liquid splashing out. The result is a red infusion, said by those who have been fortunate enough to taste it and recover, to be very bitter. This information I had from a man who complained that he was not well, and to whom, finding that he seemed to have feverish symptoms, I offered a dose of quinine. After tasting it—and retiring out of sight to reject it with decency—he declined any more, on the ground that it was exactly like the _mwavi_ he had been compelled to drink a month ago. The usual dose is about half a pint; the accused come up one by one to drink, and then sit down on the ground to wait till it takes effect. This, as stated, is usually within an hour or two. In cases where public feeling is very strong against the accused, the end is not always waited for, but he or she is lynched as soon as the symptoms seem likely to be fatal. It is said that the accused has a voice in the selection of the professional who is to mix the draught; but most natives believe so firmly in the infallibility of the _mwavi_-test, that in practice it matters little to them who compounds it. Of course, the _mapondera_ has opportunities of diluting the dose, as his own inclinations or hints previously received from interested parties may prompt; and this is probably the reason why the greater number of those who submit to the test usually escape. I remember an occasion when several families escaping from the war which was going on between Chekusi’s men and Bazale, near Lake Malombe, halted at a village near Ntumbi, where a child belonging to one of them died. They accused the people of the place of bewitching them, and called on them to drink _mwavi_, which was immediately done. One child of the village died; it is likely that it succumbed to a dose which was not strong enough to kill the adults. But the matter did not end here. The people who had demanded the ordeal were subjects of Chekusi’s brother Mandala, who was also the over-lord of certain kraals in the neighbourhood, while the villagers who had drunk the poison were under the immediate jurisdiction of Chekusi himself. The latter thought that his rights had been infringed, and insisted that some of his brother’s subjects should take _mwavi_ in their turn. I do not know how many did so this time, but the number of deaths was two.