I Knew The Case Of
A Kruman Who For Several Nights Had Smelt In His Dreams The Savoury
Smell Of Smoked Crawfish Seasoned With Red Peppers.
He became
anxious, and the headman decided some witch had set a trap baited
with this dainty for his dream-soul, with intent to do him grievous
bodily harm, and great trouble was taken for the next few nights to
prevent this soul of his from straying abroad.
The witching of things into a man is far the most frequent method
among the Bantu, hence the prevalence among them of the post-mortem
examination, - a practice I never found among the Negroes.
The belief in witchcraft is the cause of more African deaths than
anything else. It has killed and still kills more men and women
than the slave-trade. Its only rival is perhaps the smallpox, the
Grand Kraw-Kraw, as the Krumen graphically call it.
At almost every death a suspicion of witchcraft arises. The witch-
doctor is called in, and proceeds to find out the guilty person.
Then woe to the unpopular men, the weak women, and the slaves; for
on some of them will fall the accusation that means ordeal by
poison, or fire, followed, if these point to guilt, as from their
nature they usually do, by a terrible death: slow roasting alive -
mutilation by degrees before the throat is mercifully cut - tying to
stakes at low tide that the high tide may come and drown - and any
other death human ingenuity and hate can devise.
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