ABSTRACT
Everyone is interested in his own preservation, and there are many charms to enable a person to become invisible—alas! not often from the best of motives—passively to ward off the attacks of his enemies, and also to be able, in an active manner, to attack them with success. These are prepared in various ways, and range in importance from the simple piece of sabani (one of the leguminosae)—which, when held in the hand by a naughty boy, protects him against threatened chastisement by his father—to the brain of the hyena—which, when eaten by a rival, drives him mad—or to the various means by which an enemy is killed. Perhaps the fact that the word sammo means both “to obtain a talisman to injure,” and also “to poison” may throw some light upon the methods of the mallams and others!
