Witches are people believed to possess invisible powers, that nobody can explain, to do harm to others. This power is said to be in the heart of one so accused and it is not quite certain whether he knows of it himself. To prove that one is a witch or wizard the root of a certain herb (pwave) is mixed with water in a bowl and given to one to drink of it. If he does not vomit he is said to be a witch, but if he does he is not a witch.

Aje may be virgins (wundia), matrons (adelebɔ), or old women (arugbo). All of them can change themselves into small birds and fly to a meeting place in the bush, where they kill men by sucking their blood. Only the old women cry out when they fly about as birds. Ordinary people cannot recognize witches in everyday life. There is a medicine, however, which when applied to the eyes gives one the power to see witches. A person whose eyes have thus been opened will be surprised to see witches sitting in Church or beside his friends. The medicine also enables one to recognize which people can turn themselves into witches. There are medicines to protect oneself from the attentions of witches. Witches have to find a way into a man and cannot affect any one who is strong and healthy. Witches meet in companies, but in secret, for they will not admit that they are witches.

A witch is a spirit which is believed to fall into a person and to make him altogether a slave so that he does whatever the spirit wants him to do. This spirit lives mainly in old women and women in general, but is also found in men. In a man it is stronger than in a woman. It is like fire and so it is seen at night like a collection of live coals. It likes to stay in trees and particularly in coconut trees, and is but seldom seen on the ground. When it flies along or alights on a tree, it is constantly scattering fire sparks in thick showers.

In Ewe, adzé, in eastern dialects azé, is a witch spirit, and adzétɔ a person possessed by a witch. To this word corresponds Yoruba adzé, and Ekoi ndze with the same meaning. According to the Ewe, a witch (spirit or person)is a being which takes its abode in persons, for preference in women. At night it or he (she) leaves its human body, as a snake casts its skin, and walks about emitting fire from its eyes, mouth, or nose; it likes to walk with its head on the ground or, when upright, with its feet turned backward. It kills people by sucking their blood at night or by taking away their shadow (‘soul’) at noon-time.

Witches are spirits which can change themselves into the forms of many things, e.g. quadrupeds, snakes, and trees. A witch in action can be seen as a glowing lantern which at intervals sparks like a burning fire. A witch glows from midnight until early morning. A witch can glow on a tree on the edge of a town or even on a shady tree in the street of a town.

The art is not confined solely to women, but men also can practice it and such a man is called a wizard; and if two such wizards live in a town they can ruin this town, therefore wizards generally inhabit a town singly. A wizard in a town is the ‘chief’ of the witches of that town, and when they meet he assigns the night's duty to them. Children also are concerned in the art.

Hialɔ, aze, ayε, abosiami, Hexe; Hialii, azetsεme, ayεtsεme, abosiamii, Hexen; Hiami, Hexenkunst; Azeti, abosiam ti, Hexenmedizin.

Man sagt, wenn jemand am Hexen ist, so sieht man ihn brennen; wenn aber die Person nur ein wenig brennt, ist sie am Erlöschen. Man sagt, dass diese Leute eine gewisse Kraft in sich haben, mit der sie dies tun. Um zu behexen, haben manche Leute Schlangen, Pferde, Antilopen oder irgendwelche anderen Tiere. (Auf diesen Tieren reiten sie, um Leute zu behexen.) Man sagt, dass, wenn jemand beim Ausüben der Hexenkunst ist, er auf dem Kopfe geht und durch geschlossene Türen eintreten kann.

Obokpine witch; Kabɔ, witchcraft; Kɔniŋdzi, witch medicine.

Witches are persons who can kill other persons secretly. They need no gun nor any visible thing for this purpose. Witches are persons just like any other person. Men, women, as well as children can become witches. One may become a witch whether one likes to become one or not. Natural witches are born and others become it by specially prepared food.

Witches kill people. They suck blood. They fly about. They can get the form of any animal they like. They ride on the back of animals to practise witchcraft. They can disappear or become invisible to ordinary men. They can enter and leave any closed room. They destroy crops in revenge. They suck the blood of their sacrifice and share the meat of his spirit to be cooked for food.

All Mεnde people believe that a witch is not bom a witch, but becomes one during the course of his earthly life by something being put inside him. When this happens the person who has been turned into a witch begins to buy leaves with which all witchery is worked. Witchery is very bad that people do to each other cruelly during the night time, such things as will make them ill, or kills them, or makes women barren, or wounds them. And this comes from the inside of a person.