Criminal charges, too, in the first instance, are brought before the chief’s or head-man’s court. A man caught stealing may, by native law, be killed, and his death entails no prosecution. He may be caught alive, and would then be put into a slave-stick for safe-keeping, till ransomed by his friends; and killed, or kept as a slave, if no ransom were forthcoming. When a theft has been committed, without suspicion falling on any particular person, the diviner or the _mabisalila_ is consulted, and the person pointed out by him or her accused before the court. The prosecutors demand restitution of the stolen goods; the defendant pleads not guilty, and offers to drink _mwavi_ to prove it. His friends, if they believe him innocent, will demand the ordeal on his behalf; if they have misgivings, they will be afraid to run the risk, convinced, as they are, that the guilty party invariably dies, and knowing that, in such a case, they will have to pay the full value of whatever was stolen. If guilty, a man will probably confess rather than risk the ordeal—he, or his relations, will have to make restitution and pay a fine besides, the head-man of his village being held responsible. These payments also have to be made for him, if his confidence in the judgment of the ordeal turns out to have been misplaced—his death, in the native view, conclusively proving his guilt. If, on the other hand, he survives, the accusers have to pay over a fine to him, and the sorcerer is assumed to have been mistaken. Some try a second sorcerer, but he must not point out the man just acquitted, as no man can be made to drink _mwavi_ twice on the same charge. Theft, if brought into court at all, is always punished by a fine; but sometimes the thief is handed over as a slave to the injured party. Other ordeals are sometimes used besides the _mwavi_—plunging the hand into hot water, or touching red-hot iron—but the principle is the same: injury to the hand proves guilt. It will be noticed that the head-man is held responsible for thefts committed by his villagers, in accordance with the principle already stated. (He may, in fact, be the receiver of the stolen goods.) If he refuses to take the matter up when it is brought to his notice, war may be the result.