A Shark's Hook Was Baited One Evening With A Dog, Of Which The
Crocodile Is Said To Be Particularly Fond; But The Doctors Removed
The Bait, On The Principle That The More Crocodiles The More Demand
For Medicine, Or Perhaps Because They Preferred To Eat The Dog
Themselves.
Many of the natives of this quarter are known, as in the
South Seas, to eat the dog without paying any attention to its
feeding.
The dice doctor or diviner is an important member of the
community, being consulted by Portuguese and natives alike. Part of
his business is that of a detective, it being his duty to discover
thieves. When goods are stolen, he goes and looks at the place,
casts his dice, and waits a few days, and then, for a consideration,
tells who is the thief: he is generally correct, for he trusts not
to his dice alone; he has confidential agents all over the village,
by whose inquiries and information he is enabled to detect the
culprit. Since the introduction of muskets, gun doctors have sprung
up, and they sell the medicine which professes to make good marksmen;
others are rain doctors, etc., etc. The various schools deal in
little charms, which are hung round the purchaser's neck to avert
evil: some of them contain the medicine, others increase its power.
Indigo, about three or four feet high, grows in great luxuriance in
the streets of Tette, and so does the senna plant. The leaves are
undistinguishable from those imported in England.
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