One day talking to a Fingo headman, a Wesleyan preacher, over the case of a sick Fingo woman, and arguing that, after all the District Surgeon should be trusted to know best what to do, as he had had years of study so as to recognise and treat disease. I was met by this reason for his preferring his native doctor, “Oh yes but you see our native doctors are taught by God.” [[26]]
The “Medicine man” is in all ordinary cases openly called in; but in cases where witchcraft is suspected he is (owing to such an accusation and its consequences being now-a-days criminal), called by stealth and works in secrecy. He is paid a retaining fee and a good one if successful.
Speaking generally his powers are quite unlimited; although in many instances, some particular Medico will specialize and become famous for some one or group of diseases, his patients often coming great distances to consult him or her as the case may be, for sex makes, except in a few cases, no difference.
As a general rule some form of Incantation is used to exorcise the demon of disease, and if the doctor attributes the illness to the work of some departed spirit, sacrifices are offered to appease his wrath.
As one gathers more and more information on the Medicine Man, and medicine practices of the natives, one is struck with the conviction, that, as pointed out by Herbert Spencer, the “Medicine man” as such, is a natural evolution from the priest, and he is a natural sequence to a belief in ghosts and the continuous existence and influence for good or evil of the souls, [[27]]spirits, ghosts or something else of dead ancestors.
As one would expect there is a gradual evolution amongst the natives of the Bantu tribes, from the Priest, pure and simple, to the “Medicine man” proper; one who leaves the supernatural out of his method of treatment and depends on nature and combination of nature’s products for the cure of disease. Thus we have the “Isanuse,” the witch doctor, diviner of secrets, etc., and on the other hand the “Igquira Elemicisa,” the herb doctor; some of these latter even going the length of specializing different classes of diseases; and the “Awamatambo,” Kaffir Surgeons.
The Kaffir Doctor may be of either sex, except in the case of the war doctor, who is always a male; and in the puberty rites of (intonyana) and (ubukweta), each sex is treated by a practitioner of like sex.
Some of these “doctors” inherit, or are taught the knowledge possessed by their father or mother, e.g., the Awemiciza; others become so by voluntary submission to rites and training, vide Isanusi, where the process of Ukutwasa is described. They all carry on their person charms [[28]]of numerous kinds; dried lizards, tiger’s teeth, fish bones, etc., etc., etc., that have for them special virtues; and the large majority claim to have power over the demons of disease; for to the unsophisticated Kaffir, all disease is caused by “Umtagati” or witchcraft, and although the doctor may rely on his herbs and treatment to cure his patient, he is led to practice spells and go through incantations to meet the evident expectations of his patients, and perhaps more so of the relatives.
Taking a “Herb Doctor” all-round he is often a clever fellow, good at the cure of some diseases, and his methods and principles compare favourably with those ascribed to Aesculapius and Galen in the early history of medicine.
The Kaffir uses a pronominal prefixual polysyllabic language, and attention to the structure of Kaffir words is necessary in order to understand the terms applied to the various kinds of Kaffir doctors.