ABSTRACT
Three sorts of ordeal were examined; the two traditional forms of ordeal—the poison ordeal—the boiling water ordeal, and a new form of ordeal involving the use of the medicine muchapi. On the whole it would seem that the use of the medicine muchapi is the main feature of the cult which has been borrowed by Rhodesian diviners, other features largely disappearing. Four records of cases in which the poison ordeal was administered were examined by the author. In two the suspected witch herself sought the ordeal; the one because her children died; the other because of the death of her daughter and sickness in the village. In the other two cases the ordeal was probably subsequent to a divination by a diviner who threw the hakata. Various social phenomena can be explained as an attempt to fill the gap left by the abolition of the ordeal.
