. The Baganda . e in the fetich ;this was expected to make the people sleep soundly, so thatthe thief could enter the house, and take what goods he pleasedwithout being either seen or heard. Amulets (Nsiriba) may be distinguished from fetiches Amulets.(Mayembe), in that the former seldom possessed supernaturalpowers, but were used chiefly for medicinal purposes. Theywere carried or worn on the person to be ready for use ;some of them were in fact turned into ornaments, andcarried about long after they had ceased to be required fortheir original purpose. The medicine-men were the vendorsof amul
. The Baganda . e in the fetich ;this was expected to make the people sleep soundly, so thatthe thief could enter the house, and take what goods he pleasedwithout being either seen or heard. Amulets (Nsiriba) may be distinguished from fetiches Amulets.(Mayembe), in that the former seldom possessed supernaturalpowers, but were used chiefly for medicinal purposes. Theywere carried or worn on the person to be ready for use ;some of them were in fact turned into ornaments, andcarried about long after they had ceased to be required fortheir original purpose. The medicine-men were the vendorsof amulets ; the majority were-composed either of wood orof herbs, made into compact shapes by the medicine-men, sothat they could be carried about on the person. Some ofthem were for outward application only; others were to be 330 THE BAGANDA CHAP. taken internally; they were rubbed on a stone or scrapedwith a knife, and the powder thus obtained was mixed withwater or beer, if for internal use, and with butter, if for. FIG. 51.—AMULETS. outward application. They had a wide range as remedies ;indeed, almost every ailment known to the medicine-menwas treated with some kind of amulet. The expectantmother had her amulet, and the person suffering from IX RELIGIOxN 331 inflammation of the eyes had his. These amulets werevalued so highly by the people that, when the disease washealed, the medicine was not cast aside, but decorated andworn as an ornament, and was thus ready, should there beany return of the old symptoms. As charms they wereused chiefly for the prevention of disease ; their medicinalproperties had brought them into notoriety, and they wereafterwards regarded as possessing powers to avert the evilwhich they had originally been meant to cure. One amuletpartook of the nature of a fetich, it was called Ljisalo, andwas designed to insure fecundity. It consisted of a pieceof wood, often sewn into a small cat-skin bag, at timesdecorated with cowry-shells, and worn tied round the w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidbaganda00joh, bookyear1911
