Introduction. Many Kikuyu, as well as the people of other tribes, trouble themselves greatly with the fear of witchcraft. They do not often bother to inquire the source of the stuff and what it is made of. They simply believe that there is such a thing and that a person may die as a result of it, and this fills the hearts of every one with the fear of death by witchcraft. People die from various diseases, and it is frequently supposed that the person has been bewitched, but often this is not so. Whenever a person is taken ill and dies suddenly, it is said that he has been bewitched.

When a person is ill he will go to the diviner and ask him: ‘What has made me ill?’ The diviner takes his cup, rubs it on a stone, and when it is stopped in a certain place he will say: ‘Indeed the sorcerers have bewitched you, go to the doctor and ask him for medicine.’ When the doctor has prepared the medicines, he tells the man: ‘I have settled the matter, you will no longer be ill, nobody is able to bewitch either you or your wife or your children.’

The Moloi may either be a man or a woman. It is said most Baloi are women. Because the men generally have more than one wife, it happens that those wives who are neglected by their husbands obtain magic medicine in order to kill the husband, so that the more-favoured wives lose him too. Or they procure love-philtres from witch-doctors, so that he prefers them to the other wives. And then it often occurs that they unwittingly give him something that is fatal to him. Children obtain the power of magic from their parents. This magic power is given to them in helpless babyhood by grafting magic medicine in their posterior cavity. Such a person has the power of making himself invisible, especially at night.

Ein Mann, der andere behext, ist ein igqwir'a; wenn eine Frau hext, ist sie eine igqwir'akazi. Hexerei heisst ubugqwir'a. Ein Zauberer darf nicht verwechselt werden mit einem ‘Medium’. Ein Zauberer unterscheidet sich erstens dadurch, dass er keine besondere Bekleidung trägt wie ein Medium. Zweitens wünscht er auch nicht, gekannt zu sein, oder dass man weiss, dass er Zaubermittel besitzt. Er verheimlicht seine Fähigkeit. Das tut er solange, bis ein Medium es offenbart, das ihn erkannt hat.

Pour devenir puissant. Quand un homme veut devenir riche et puissant (ekoka: d'okukokela, attirer tout à soi), il cherche quelqu'un pour lui donner des forces, parmi ceux qui peuvent faire mourir (ou rendre malheureux) les vivants. ‘Puissant (ekoka), tu auras tout ce que tu désires, personnene passera à côté de toi sans te saluer, à toi le bétail, les chèvres, inutile de vouloir les compter, tu as tant de céréales, quatre ou cinq femmes, du miel à go-go.’ Et tu te dis: ‘J'ai de tout en abondance, tant de cauries, de bracelets de fer, de colliers de perles, d'étoffes et de couvertures, que me manque-t-il? Je chercherai un remède pour devenir gros (euti) et le remède qui me donne de l'appétit pour que ma chair soit grasse.