en, based upon the supernatural, even
though they themselves do not claim to be and are not regarded as
being magic men in the highest sense. I think I may regard them as
being more or less the Mafulu equivalents of the Roro individuals
whom Dr. Seligmann calls "departmental experts." [112]

Dealing first with the true sorcerers, they undoubtedly include
among their number the men who perform the special ceremonial already
described for ascertaining whether a sick chief is or is not destined
to die. They also seem to include the makers or providers of the
various charms, including those which are carried in the little charm
bags and the love charms used by young men, as already mentioned. There
are also two other matters which are regarded as coming within the
province of the true sorcerers, of which one relates to rain and the
other relates to illness and death. I will deal with them separately.

The rain sorcerer is apparently merely a diviner. Dr. Seligmann would
perhaps include him among the departmental experts, but the Fathers
of the Mission regard him as being a true sorcerer. He is the man
to whom the people go in anticipation of a proposed important event,
such as a big feast, or perhaps a fighting or large hunting expedition,
to ascertain and inform them whether the period in which it is proposed
that the event shall occur will be fine or wet; but he does not profess
to be able to do more than this, and they never expect him to prevent
or bring about the rain, or in any way hold him responsible for the
weather as it may in fact eventually occur.

The sorcery connected with illness and death is not so simple; and
there is no doubt that it is not confined to powers of divination,
but includes powers of actual causation. This department of
sorcery obviously includes the ceremonial in connection with the
supposed dying chief. But it is not confined to this ceremony,
as it is generally believed by the Mafulu people that sickness,
which does not necessarily end in death, and death itself, can be,
and commonly is, brought about by the operation of sorcerers in one
way or another through the medium of certain things. The only things
of this nature concerning which I was able to obtain information are
(1) the inedible part of some vegetable food which the victim has
recently eaten (_e.g.,_ the outside part of a sweet potato or banana
or the cane part of a sugar cane), and (2) the victim's discharged
excrement or uri