DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0315
THE WAYAO OF NYASALAND
299
village had its regular place of torture and mwai drinking, two or three miles from the
village. Those used by Malemya, the old Zomba chief, may still be seen.
A clear way is made two feet broad and fourteen feet long in the bush and here the
accused takes up his position attended on either side by the two pleaders, the defending
pleader on the right, the prosecuting on the left. Facing east or west or following the direc-
tions originally given by the caster-of-lots, that is, taking up the position in which the
accused is supposed to take a midnight bath, or practice some rite under a tree or an ant
hill, etc., he is given a decoction of mwai to drink from a gourd. This decoction is made on
the spot, the bark being pounded up on a stone by one of the prosecutors. The accused
must have had no food that day. He then starts to walk up and down the short cleared
path with the two men, one on either side of him, the one saying, “Now you have drunk
mwai, you shall die as you deserve; you did in So-and-So,” the other denying the accusa-
tions, saying, “ He shall vomit the poison.” He is watched by the assembled crowd who
note the various symptoms of which vomiting is the first and said to be the most character-
istic. After this has gone on for some time, they watch for what is called the nyongo which
is said to be “ a ball of bile formed in the mouth and expelled by vomiting so that it bursts
on reaching the ground but not before ”, followed often by a second ball, twenty minutes
later. Should this be expelled, recovery may be expected, foreshadowed by clearing of the
vision. If he recovers, he is indeed a wonderful man and is hailed on all sides. The women
trill with their tongues and shout, and he is carried back in triumph; the defending pleader
will swagger about and demand anything he wants for his client.
A fatal termination is characterized by little and non-forcible vomiting. Purging is
common but said to be painless. Vision is affected and as time goes on, the spectators
ask what he can see, “ Do you see that over there? ” indicating a hill. If he makes mistakes,
then they say, “ Ah, he is going to die! ”
The poison may not take full effect for three or four hours. The end is ushered in by a
last stage when the legs become weak; he staggers, then unable to stand any longer, falls
to the ground dead, execrated by the onlookers who rush in and hurl stones upon the body,
crushing it. The relatives take the mangled corpse and lay it on logs covered with grass in
the bush. No other covering is permitted. It may be placed in a tree by people acting as
awilo. Burial is forbidden.
In some cases wasawi used to be burned, not being given the chance of the poison trial.
This took place at a recognized spot like ndawo. The last man to be burned by Malemya
was Mtulula in 1892. Burning was also a punishment in some bad cases of murder. Such
was the fate of Chingale. The man was put in a slave-stick, a pile of logs was built round
him and then set on fire.
Witch-finder. In addition to ordeal poison, another method of discovering a msawi is
by “ smelling out.” If a number of people have died in a certain village, the inhabitants
may begin to think that there is a msawi among them, and procure the services of a mbisalila.
299
village had its regular place of torture and mwai drinking, two or three miles from the
village. Those used by Malemya, the old Zomba chief, may still be seen.
A clear way is made two feet broad and fourteen feet long in the bush and here the
accused takes up his position attended on either side by the two pleaders, the defending
pleader on the right, the prosecuting on the left. Facing east or west or following the direc-
tions originally given by the caster-of-lots, that is, taking up the position in which the
accused is supposed to take a midnight bath, or practice some rite under a tree or an ant
hill, etc., he is given a decoction of mwai to drink from a gourd. This decoction is made on
the spot, the bark being pounded up on a stone by one of the prosecutors. The accused
must have had no food that day. He then starts to walk up and down the short cleared
path with the two men, one on either side of him, the one saying, “Now you have drunk
mwai, you shall die as you deserve; you did in So-and-So,” the other denying the accusa-
tions, saying, “ He shall vomit the poison.” He is watched by the assembled crowd who
note the various symptoms of which vomiting is the first and said to be the most character-
istic. After this has gone on for some time, they watch for what is called the nyongo which
is said to be “ a ball of bile formed in the mouth and expelled by vomiting so that it bursts
on reaching the ground but not before ”, followed often by a second ball, twenty minutes
later. Should this be expelled, recovery may be expected, foreshadowed by clearing of the
vision. If he recovers, he is indeed a wonderful man and is hailed on all sides. The women
trill with their tongues and shout, and he is carried back in triumph; the defending pleader
will swagger about and demand anything he wants for his client.
A fatal termination is characterized by little and non-forcible vomiting. Purging is
common but said to be painless. Vision is affected and as time goes on, the spectators
ask what he can see, “ Do you see that over there? ” indicating a hill. If he makes mistakes,
then they say, “ Ah, he is going to die! ”
The poison may not take full effect for three or four hours. The end is ushered in by a
last stage when the legs become weak; he staggers, then unable to stand any longer, falls
to the ground dead, execrated by the onlookers who rush in and hurl stones upon the body,
crushing it. The relatives take the mangled corpse and lay it on logs covered with grass in
the bush. No other covering is permitted. It may be placed in a tree by people acting as
awilo. Burial is forbidden.
In some cases wasawi used to be burned, not being given the chance of the poison trial.
This took place at a recognized spot like ndawo. The last man to be burned by Malemya
was Mtulula in 1892. Burning was also a punishment in some bad cases of murder. Such
was the fate of Chingale. The man was put in a slave-stick, a pile of logs was built round
him and then set on fire.
Witch-finder. In addition to ordeal poison, another method of discovering a msawi is
by “ smelling out.” If a number of people have died in a certain village, the inhabitants
may begin to think that there is a msawi among them, and procure the services of a mbisalila.