Witchcraft and magic of Africa

Foreword by Montague Summers.

Prologue: The burden. 1 "Mise en scene". 2 Scarless wounding and firewalking. 3 Parlour tricks. 4 Backdrop of the magical stage. 5 Drums of Africa. 6 Afroca damces. 7 Lycanthropy. 8 Sic transit. 9 Smelling out. 10 More things in heaven and earth. 11 And the dead shall rise up. 12 Propitiation. 13 A little more about witchdoctors. 14 "Test the spirits". 15 The magic of Zimbabwe. 16 Divination. 17 Oblation. 18 Magic of the flowers. 19 The wandering head. 20 Obeah. 21 Magic of the waters. 22 Permutations and reflections. 23 Ritual killing. 24 "There was one door

'What is magic? There are an incomparable number of happenings, rites, tricks of behaviour, divinations, sorceries, which, though they sound like magic to us, are the veriest commonplace to their practitioners. That must be our keynote. These weird happenings are as commonplace to native Africans, as births, deaths, weddings, funerals, prayers, wishes, dances, "booze-ups", high court procedures: as unnoteworthy as our early morning cup of tea. Again, no one could possibly give anything like a complete picture, because a lifetime is far too short to become intimate with the secrets, for the most part closely guarded, of the whole of Africa. Every little rite and ceremony has innumerable permutations and combinations, and each tribe, or even family, has its own traditions and methods.' --p. 1

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