Witch-Doctors | Page 5

on which, of course, the alimentary needs of
his subjects depended--an incarnation of a god who was in reality the
scapegoat of the god's omissions.
The office was hereditary. Perhaps no one else would willingly accept
such an onerous post. The making of magic was performed before the
god with the assistance of the chief witch-doctor, an exceedingly
lucrative post won upon merit, occupied by one Bakahenzie, a tall
muscular man in the prime of life, whose bearing was that of the native
autocrat, fierce and remorseless. The King's personal wishes could be
safely granted as long as he did not endanger the existence of the
people by a desire to break any of the meshes of the tabus designed to
ensure the safety of his sacred body, and therefore that of the tribe, on
the assumption that if the incarnation were injured the god would be
injured, and so would his creations be affected: any infringement of
these laws entailed the penalty of death, a code which revealed the
native logic in the confusion of cause and effect, the concrete and the
abstract.
In the door of a hut on the outskirts of the village squatted a wizened
man with a tuft of grey beard upon his chin. He was clad in a loin-cloth
fairly clean, and about his neck was suspended by a twisted fibre an
amulet wrapped in banana leaves containing the gall and toenail of an
enemy slain by a virgin warrior, a specific against black magic whose
powerful properties were proven by the undisputed influence and
wealth of the owner.
A tall lithe savage, bearing upon his arms and ankles the ivory bracelets
of the royal house and the elephant hair chaplet of the warrior,
advanced leisurely towards him from the banana plantation. Marufa
continued to gaze in rumination at the opposite hut. But as they had not
met since the rising of the sun, he did not fail to make the orthodox
greeting at the exact moment that the chief's shadow passed in front of
him, which Zalu Zako returned punctiliously, thereby averting an evil
omen. As soon as the young man had passed beyond the next hut

appeared in the grove a girl, modelled like a bronze wood nymph. She
wore the tiny girdle of the unmarried and walked furtively, carrying in
her hand a parcel wrapped in banana leaves. In the shadow of a
compound fence she halted, one slender brown arm set back in
apprehension as her eyes followed the lithe figure of Zalu Zako.
Motionless sat Marufa staring in mystic contemplation. Bakuma
glanced swiftly about her. Apparently satisfied that no one was
observing her save a lean dog and two gollywog children, she
continued on as if to pass the old man, her eyes still ranging like a
fawn's. But when she was beside Marufa she subsided on her haunches
beside him, clutching the bundle as she whispered:
"Greetings, O wise one!"
"Greeting, daughter," returned Marufa without lessening the fixity of
his gaze.
"I would talk with thee."
"Aye."
Again she glanced around furtively.
"I would talk in thine ear, O my father."
"The knots of my hair are tied."
"I thank thee. There's a fluttering bird in my breast."
"And a snake around thy heart, O my daughter."
"Aie-e!"
"The grandson of the snake hath tied thy girdle."
"Ehh!"
The girl clasped her breast in surprised terror.

"How dost thou know?"
"All things are known to the son of MTungo," declared Marufa
solemnly, still regarding the opposite wall. "Thou desirest a love
charm.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} What hast thou?"
Tremulously Bakuma put down the green package on the ground,
darting terrified glances to right and left. Slowly the skinny hand of the
wizard gently tore open the leaves; very impressively the eyes slanted
down to appraise the stock of blue and white beads.
"The spirit of Tarum hath a big belly," he announced tonelessly.
"O wise one, intercede for me," pleaded Bakuma, "for more have I
none, I, Bakuma, daughter of Bakala, a girl of the hut thatch."
"The true love charm, infallible and powerful, is difficult to obtain, O
Bakuma. The young huntress aims at big game."
"Ehh! But I have no more, great one!"
"The hair of a rutting leopardess, the liver of a forest rat, the tongue of
a Baroto bird--these must I have to mix with thy blood to be drunk by
thy man when the moon is full."
"Ehh! Ehh!"
"Such is the magic that no young man can resist."
"Ehh-h!"
"But these things are difficult to obtain."
"Aie! Aie!" wailed Bakuma, clasping her hands in despair.
"Difficult to obtain."
"Aie-e!"

"On the night of the half-moon will I take upon me the leopard form."
"Ehh!"
"I will talk with the spirits."
"Ehh! Ehh!"
"But they must be propitiated