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The Way in Which a Person Begins to Be a Diviner |
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Uthlabo
18 is known by causing a sensation of perforation19 of the side; and the man says, "I have pain under the armpit, beneath the shoulder-blade, in my side, in the flesh. It causes the feeling as if there was a hole there; the pain passes through my body to each side." |
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The men ask, "What is this disease? for it resembles nothing but uthlabo." |
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He replies, "Yes, yes; I too say it is uthlabo; it is that which comes out20 from the side of my body and will not let me breathe, neither will it let me lie down." |
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At length the doctor who knows the medicines for uthlabo cures it. But black people call it also ukxulo,21 and say it is a caused by the Itongo.22 And when a man is constantly affected23 by uthlabo, black men say the Itongo is walking in him; Amatongo are walking in his body. If the disease lasts a long time, they at length go to enquire of diviners. They come and say, "He is affected by the Itongo. He is affected by his people who are dead.24 There was one of them who was an inyanga; and this man has the Itongo in this body; his people wish him to have a soft head,25 and become a diviner, when he has been initiated." |
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The diviners say, "Do not give him any more medicines. Do you not see when you get uthlabo-medicines for him, the disease does not cease? When you give him medicine, do you not thereby increase the disease? Leave him alone. His people are in him. They wish him to dream." |
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And if one of his people who is dead was an inyanga, the diviners who come to divine call him by name, and say, "So-and-so is in him; it is he who says he is to be an inyanga. It is a great inyanga that possesses him." That is what the diviners say. They say, "The man who was an inyanga, who is walking in his body, was also an inyanga who could dig up poisons.26 He used to dig them up. And since he who used to dig up the poison of the sorcerers by which they destroyed others has taken possession of this man, he too as soon as he has been initiated will have a white Itongo,27 and will dig up poisons as So-and-so, one of his people, used to do. Leave him alone as regards medicines. Throw away medicines, and give him no more; you will kill him if you do. You think they will cure him. They will not cure him. He is purposely thus affected. The Amatongo wish him to become a white28 inyanga. Be quiet, and see if the Amatongo do not give him commands at night in his sleep. You will see him come home in the morning, not having seen him go out, having had medicines revealed to him which he will go to the mountains to dig up; you will see he has dug up cleansing-ubulawo, and he will churn it and make it froth and drink it, and cleanse himself by it, and so begin to be an inyanga. And at other times he will be commanded to fetch impepo, which he will go to the marsh to pluck." |
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The Amatongo tell him to kill cattle, for the dead are very fond of demanding flesh of one whom they wish to make an inyanga. He slaughters them for his people who are dead. And others enter his kraal.29 He slaughters constantly, and others again come in in their place, the cattle being derived from his treatment |
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