Chapter VII
The Search for the Witch
People believe their chief died by witchcraft--They send for the witch-finder--His arrival and antics--The ceremony of discovering the witch--Satu’s brother, Mavakala, is accused--Why was Mavakala accused?--He takes the ordeal--Proves his innocence--Other tests are forced on him--He is done to death.
During the illness of the deceased chief there was a widespread feeling in the town that some one was bewitching him, and that therefore the “medicine men” were unable to cure him. At last one of their wizards stated plainly that a witch was at work destroying their best efforts; and although they tried charms to ward off, and threats to frighten, the witch from pursuing his (or her) wicked purpose, yet their patient continued to grow worse, and at last died. And now that their chief was buried the people demanded that a proper witch-finder should be engaged to seek out the witch.
A great witch-finder was called from a distant town, and on his arrival I noticed that he was a small, active man with keen piercing eyes that seemed to jump from face to face and read the very thoughts of those who stood around.
He was dressed in the soft skins of monkeys and bush-cats; around his neck was a necklace of rats’ teeth mixed with the teeth of crocodiles and leopards. His body was decorated with pigments of different colours; thick circles of white surrounded the eyes, a patch of red ran across the forehead, broad stripes of yellow chased each other down the cheeks, bands of red and yellow went up the arms and across the chest, and spots of blue promiscuously filled in the vacant spaces. At the different points of his curious dress were bells that tinkled at every movement. The boys looked at him in deep awe, the girls and women cowered away from him, and the men, though they feared him, greeted him with a simulated friendliness that ill-accorded with their nervousness.
The witch-finder (or N gang’ a N gombo) was supposed to find his own way to the town and home of his client; for how could they believe in a man’s occult power to discover a witch if he had not the ability to walk straight, without being shown, to the house of his employer.
To meet this difficulty the witch-finder had one or two apprentices, among whose duties it was to question cautiously the messenger, and to obtain from him all the needed information about the town, house, circumstances attending the death of the person, and the relations of the townspeople to one another. If the messenger would not, or could not, give the required knowledge, then the assistant accompanied him back to his town, and, as he went, he dropped at the cross-roads twigs or leaves to guide his master--the witch-finder--right up to the house of his client.
The assistant ferreted out the quarrels of the family employing his master, and their animosities towards each other, or towards one of their number. In every family there is to be found at least one who is the object of the suspicion, jealousy or hatred of the family--the unpopular member; and all the information thus gathered is secretly told to the witch-finder and the disliked person pointed out to him.
On the appointed day a great crowd gathered. No member of the clan was absent, except those on trading expeditions. The assembled people formed a great circle, into the middle of which the witch-finder danced and chanted to the beat of the drums. It was a hot day and the sun poured down its scorching rays on the performer, making him perspire so profusely that the various colours on his face and body ran into each other, adding grotesqueness to his ugliness.
As he pranced and danced up and down the circle he put question after question, and was answered by the people with ndungu,[[18]] or otuama,[[19]] as he guessed wrongly or rightly about the dead man’s ways.