Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-12
ALASKAN DEVILTRY
Witchcraft In Alaska-Old Women and
Young Children Burned aud
Cut 10 Pieces.
Interesting Account of Horrible Super.
stition from Fort WrIngle by q Pres
byterian Missionary.
81 Louis Rennhlicnn. sth.


Those who attended the meeting of the
| Women's Board of Missions at the Presby-
| terian rooms on Eighth and Olive streets, yes
| terday afternoon, were shocked, grieved and
astonished all at one and the same time, when
| they listened to the reading of very sensa-
tional letter from Miss Maggie J. Dunbar,
Presbyterian missionary stationed at present
at Fort Wrangell, Alaska Through the letter
its author described the terrible sufierings of
| several families, old men and young children,
recently tortured to death for the alleged
crime of witchcraft. The victims including
persons OF various ages, from four TO seventy
years, were tried by the heather tribunals of
the place and sentenced to death. At Loci,
a portion of Alaska where the ancient popu-
lation OF the place predominates, and en-
force their unwritten law, which consists
OF all the superstitions their ancestors found
leisure to devise and hand down to their pos
terity, family found guilty of being spiritual
iugglers, OF type supposed to be in league
with the devil, were taken out and tied to trees
The grandmother OF the family was tied to
large forest tree and left there to starve.
After giving her salt water whenever she
asked that her thirst might be quenched, the
demons about the tree finally hacked her to
death with knives. The balance of the fam
lily succeeded in breaking away from their
captors and escaped BY plunging into dark
and, to all appearances, impenetrable forest
ullcu Win VIII luecc pcISSCutcu
people wandered about through the dark re-
cesses of this wilderness cold and hungry,
until they could stand their sufferings no
longer, when they concluded to cross the en-
envy s country under cover of darkness and
reach, if possible, Fort WraDgell, where they
knew they would be safe in the presence OF
United States man-of-war. They reached the
ocean and took to a canoe. In this frail bark
they pursued their journey, hugging the coast
as closely possible until they finally ar
rived at the fort, almost dead, and scarcely
able to talk, so great was their exhaustion.
The missionary, who was walking on the
beach on the evening of their arrival, saw
the canoe land. The craft contained an old
man and two children, who re-
lated their frightful adventures, and
asked for protection. The children were
taken into the missionary home of the fort.
The two girls, the letter states, looked rather
odd, walking TO the home along the beach,
robed in blankets battered and torn. A little
girl, whom the missionary calls Georgia,
only five years of age, and an orphan, re-
sided with an aunt. This aunt took sick one
day, when the child was accused of bewitch-
ing her, and making her bad medicine"
As soon as this accusation was made the I'M |
fortunate little creature was locked up in
room where she was kept for three days |
without food or water and whipped unmerci- |
fully, until her body was literally covered |
with discolored marks. The chief of one Of |
the christianized communities heard of the |
outrage and reported the matter to the mill |
tary authorities of the fort, who visited the |
place where the child was confined. one |
night, rescued her and took her to the mis- |
sionary home Both the cases described |
have been reported to the captain of the !,
man -of-war stationed at the fort, and the |
sayages, it is thought, will ultimately be |
punished. This week, says the writer, Mrs. |
Mel arland took in two interesting young /
girls who had fled from Cape Fox village, |
where some of their friends had been killed |
for witchcraft.
The people of Alaska have believed in
witchcraft as far back into the past as their
traditions carry them. If a native doctor is
called upon 10 administer medicine |
to a patient, and the patient fails
10 recover with great suddenness, he
accuses the nurse or some other de-
fenseless person OF being witch, and tamper-
ing with his herbs and roots. The person SO
accused is promptly taken out and tied to a
tree. He is starved for some time, fed on
salt water, and then roasted to death or
hacked into pieces with knives. When al
epidemic or any other calamity prevails all
the old women and defenseless children that
can be caught before they have slime to take
to the woods are murdered according to the
regular forms approved by the ira
Ter non seripta of the God
great demand for missionary work in
such a country. Ia fact, in any country
where old, gray-haired women and little
children are starved, whipped, roasted alive
and fed on salt water there is plenty of work
that ought TO be accomplished in the interest
Of humanity by the humanitarian whatever
may be the creed or doctrine he represents.
The witchcraft outrages in Alaska, it is
strange fact, are spasmodic, and occur only
at periods. When one person is accused the
chances are that alleged witnesses will be
discovered in great number all over the
country |