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"If I Have Been Guilty Of This Crime,
"If I Have Gone And Sought The Sick One's Hurt,
"If I
Have sent another to seek the sick one's hurt,
"If I have employed any one to make charms or to
Cook bush,
"Or to put anything in the road,
"Or to touch his cloth,
"Or to touch his yams,
"Or to touch his goats,
"Or to touch his fowl,
"Or to touch his children,
"If I have prayed for his hurt,
"If I have thought to hurt him in my heart,
"If I have any intention to hurt him,
"If I ever, at any time, do any of these things (recite in full),
"Or employ others to do these things (recite in full),
"Then, Mbiam! THOU deal with me."
This form I give was for use when a man was sick, and things were
generally going badly with him, for it is not customary in cases of
disease to wait until death occurs before making an accusation of
witchcraft. In the case of Mbiam being administered after a death
this long and complicated oath would be worded to meet the case most
carefully, the future intention clauses being omitted. In all
cases, whenever it is used, the greatest care is taken that the oath
be recited in full, oath-takers being sadly prone to kiss their
thumb, as it were, particularly ladies who are taking Mbiam for
accusations of adultery, in conjunction with the boiling oil ordeal.
Indeed, so unreliable is this class of offenders, or let us rather
say this class of suspected persons, that some one usually says the
oath for them.
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