pipe beads and a fowl, after recovery from an infectious disease by means of the mbambi fetish. In return for the fee instruction is given in the "medicines" used and method of procedure. (If the patient is clever enough to recognise the herbs etc. given to him, and to imitate the ceremonies, he may set up as a nganga without paying any fee.)
3. Being imbued with fetish power in the ekinu dance.[1]
4. Passing the ordeal for witches successfully.[2]
The profession was therefore open to any shrewd, artful, and energetic person, either rich or poor, bond or free, and was not confined to one sex. As a rule, the nganga was a lithe and active person, for it was often necessary to dance for hours to excite the crowd to the necessary pitch; he had restless, sharp eyes that jumped from face to face of the spectators; he had an acute knowledge of human nature, and knew almost instinctively what would please the surrounding throng; but his face became after a time ugly, repulsive, and the canvas upon which cruelty, chicanery, hate, murder, and all devilish passions were portrayed with repellent accuracy. When performing, blue, red, white, yellow, and any other colours he could obtain were plastered in patches, lines, and circles upon the face and exposed parts of his body; thick circles of white surrounded the eyes, a patch of red crossed the fore-
- ↑ Vol. xx., pp. 464-5.
- ↑ Vol. xix., p. 417. In March, 1909, I met a man who had formerly been a ngang’ a ngombo (witch-finder). He had been accused four times of being a witch, and each time had vomited after drinking the nkasa infusion, and so proved his innocence. After the fourth ordeal he informed his friends that he would begin business himself as a ngang’ a ngombo. He was in much request as a witch-finder, and was never again himself accused. On one occasion he was chased by the person accused, who threatened to shoot him, but his principal professional difficulty was to find unerringly the grave of the person killed by the witch. If death was believed to be due to witchcraft, no trace was left of the grave, and the pointing out of the place of interment was regarded as the crucial test of the occult powers of the nganga.
