Bantu folk lore (medical and general) / by Matthew L. Hewat, M.D.

  • Hewat, Matthew L.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bantu folk lore (medical and general) / by Matthew L. Hewat, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/128 (page 16)
    “great place and the chief despatches a number of men to the kraal to seize and con- fiscate all his property and cattle. The belief is that a person dying under these circumstances had gone to a place of punish- ment ; but the Amaxosa have no name for it. They, have, however a name for a happy place although they cannot describe it. The superstitious idea attached to the death above referred to, is that the soul of the dead man, being dissatisfied is likely to inspire his children or near relatives with a spirit of witch- craft and that they are likely to become a public danger in consequence. These relatives are therefore forever looked upon with suspicion, and are frequently u smelled out as the cause of bewitching in subsequent events. They are often severely tortured, sometimes fatally, in order to get them to confess theii sins* One of the chief methods of torture is to tie them inside the hut while it is kept filled with dense pungent smoke. Superstition pervades the whole of the Bantu family. They all believe in the spirit world and the resurrection from the dead even of the lower animals.