Another charm to prevent sickness is one which is sometimes called “Umtshopi.”
Young maidens are here the performers. When “Umtshopi” is to be played, these maids rise early in the morning and go to some brook or riverside where grows, a kind of long, broad leaved rush, which they pull, and fashion into a fantastic kind of dress, thus:—
A rope is plaited sufficient to go round her waist, on this she works the reeds, so as, to form a fringe or kind of kilt which will touch the ground when she moves. Another is made to fasten round the chest under the arms, and a third thickly worked is worn round the neck so as to conceal the arms and bust. A hat is then made in the same manner, only the rushes are burned so as to stand up, thus giving the girl in this green costume, the appearance of a moving bunch of grasses.
Each girl being thus arrayed, they set out on a round of calls to the kraals of the neighbourhood. Each chants a weird song, dancing, gyrating in a most fantastic manner, [[103]]frequently increasing the effect of their grotesque appearance by wild whoops and unearthly yells, until the smaller children begin to scream of sheer fright; for now the mothers forcibly lay down on the ground all the younger ones, who cannot be persuaded to do so, and an Umtonjane jumps over each one, from the tiny mite just learning to crawl, to urchins of from twelve to fourteen years of age.
After all the little ones of the kraal have been “jumped” the performers go off and kindling a fire, burn their “Umtshopi,” a process of some difficulty and duration owing to the greeness of the reeds. Any garment or ornament which a girl may happen to wear while playing “Umtshopi” must be burnt, otherwise the efficacy of the charm is quite destroyed.
Among the charms practiced to prevent sickness from visiting a kraal is the “Umkuba” or custom of the girls herding the cattle for a day. No special season of the year is chosen for this custom. It is merely enacted when diseases are known to be prevalent. On such an occasion, all the girls and unmarried women of a kraal rise early in the morning, dress themselves entirely in their brothers’ [[104]]or men’s skins, and taking their “knobkerries” and sticks, open the cattle pen or kraal, and drive the cattle away from the vicinity of the homestead, none of these soidisant herds returning home until sunset, when they bring the cattle back. No one of the opposite sex dares go near the girls on this day, or speak to them.
Seriously deformed children are left in the open veldt with the hope that the spirits, who bewitched them will relent and either cure them or take them away. Usually carnivora manage the latter alternative.
The method of doctoring children though curious is on the whole rational.
When the child is sick, emetics or purgatives are used. If the former, the usual way of laying the child on its back and holding its nose is adopted. If the latter, a decoction is prepared, a short piece of small reed is obtained. The mother takes the liquor into her mouth and inserting one end of the reed into the child’s fundament, blows the mixture into the bowels giving the picanini what she thinks sufficient.
The Placenta is burned, with the lochia mixed with cowdung, and as far as I can find out there is no superstition attached to its [[105]]disposal such as exists in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland. The infant is first rolled in a fresh goat skin and no special treatment of the navel adopted.