94 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO.

them, but strong long sticks do, and with these a man can drive them before him until at dawn they can be seen and recognised. ‘The passion for human flesh runs in certain families, and is hereditary. The members of these families are useless as servants, and their girls make good-for-nothing wives, for they are perverse, and will not eat every kind of food. Such families like to introduce new blood by making matches in far-distant places. Girls from the neighbourhood will not stay with them, but run away, and will not reveal what they have seen. Women have the monopoly of a certain power of charming, which consists in bewitching vegetable or animal food with their eyes, and then giving it to some one to eat, who is immediately seized with violent pains in the stomach, which do not pass off until the charmer is brought and spits three times on the body of the sufferer. The belief in the evil eye, both of men and women, is universal; means of protecting oneself against it do not exist. | The cutting of children’s upper incisors before the lower appears to be feared as bringing misfortune, and when it ics the mbandua (magician) is at once summoned to perform certain dances for the protection of the child, and is rewarded by a goat. Such dances, indeed, constitute a universal remedy for sickness. Epilepsy (ms¢mbo) is common, but is not considered hereditary; girls afflicted with this disease have a difficulty in finding husbands, and are frequently married without payment of the equivalent in cows. A remedy for the disease 1s unknown.

Insanity (clalu), and also temporary mental aberration, are frequent; the latter is treated with herbal remedies, which effect an immediate cure by means of sleep and sweating. Polydactylism is rare. If the superfluous fingers are noticed at birth, they are at once removed; otherwise they are left. Smallpox (blundu) is much dreaded; as soon as any one is attacked by it, and the pustules are filled with matter, they are opened and washed with lukewarm water. As often as fresh matter is formed, the process is repeated, yet the sufferers usually die. Vaccination is quite unknown. Syphilis (kabrevenjw) is very prevalent, but I have never noticed widespread disorganisation, and a tendency to self-healing always predomi-