The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-07-06
A ZULU PUNISHMENT.
Travels in Zululand.

Travels in Zuluand.
 The son of Pambeli, a chief, had died suddenly and the diviners, witch doctors called upon to smell out the Gb0tdki who had caused the young chiefs death. The Zulus are completely under the power of the witch doctors. They believe thor oughly in bad men and women who go about caus- ing sickness and death; they believe that these evil ones go about at night accompanied by their famil- jars (wild cats and baboons) and lay poison in the paths for people to step over and the thresholds and in the fields to destroy crops-thus sickness and death are attributed to their malice.
 In the course of the next day all the people gath cred in the square before Pambelrs house, mass of silent, quaking men and women, for none knew whom the diviners would convict. Pambeli him. self sat silent and stricken in the doorway of his hut; before him, the witch finders.
 There were three hideous and revolting men wearing various charms upon their filthy bodies, rows of gleaming teeth around their pecks, dried toads with the eyes of animals and snake skins tied to their waists and a quantity of clanking metal bracelets on ankles and arms.
 Alter some preliminary incantations these three men suddenly leaped forward and commenced their work of "smelling out" Round and round the great circle formed by the people they ran, some- times slowly with cunning gravity, sometimes with almost incredible swiftness forever crying out one word, Esscd and all the people repeating it after them, sometimes loudly-then 1t was dan- gerous-then whispering 1t, crying 1t over and over again, running, dancing, yelling, until the witch-fnders, steaming with precipitation, had m ", shouting and shrieking with the widest contor- tions of face and limb, till, after tornado of final violence they swooped with the rapidity of eagles upon one startled girl, touched her with . orked stick and cried Estcd at their loudest while the covering crowd breathed freer the next mo- ment, and then repeated the fatal word in one last overwhelming shout.
 It was all over, the trial was finished, the victim was selected and naught remained but the penalty to be pronounced. At the supreme moment of selection the people dropped away on either side and the girl stood alone, the focus of all eyes After one fearful glance all round after second of tense rigidity, the woman fell forward in stu ever forget When those appointed by the witch doctors touched her she rose shrieking and strug- gling, but seeing-probably knowing-the help lessness of 1t all she fell again at their feet
 Late that night one of our Kaffr lads-an Eng lish-speaking mission boy-called Tom Oupe- came in and told us the woman had been taken to the woods, bound to a tree, her body smeared all over with wild honey, a small train of 1t thickly laid near white ants nest, and left. When the moon crept above the tops of the trees, Wood and rose buckled on our revolvers and cartridge belts and signaled Oupe quietly. After going about 6 mile the boy crouched and pointed and Wood and went forward alone There was partial clear ing in the forest and through the trees we could see the plain beyond, then passing cloud drifted by and obscured the light. We two men stood close together and waited with our revolvers in our hands. Nowhere does the moon seem to shine with such wonderful radiance as in Africa. When the light showed again we crept forward. All at once Cyril gave an inarticulate cry of horror and dismay; he was covered with thousands of crawl ing things, slimy millions were creeping at our feet, and there before in the white splendor of the moonlight, was the poor girls body tied naked at the foot of a tree, eaten to death by ants.