Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-07-04
EATEN TO DEATH BY ANTS.
The Horrible Fate Which Came to
q Poor Little Zulu Maid.

The son of Pambeli, chief, had died
suddenly, and the OWNERS. or witch doc
tors, were called upon to smell out the
''abatak" who had caused the young
chiefs death. The Zulus are complete
/ ly under the power of the witch doctors.
They believe thoroughly in bad men and
women who go about causing sickness
and death; they believe that these evil
ones go about at night accompanied by
their familiars (wildcats and baboons)
and lay poison in the path for people to
step over, and on the thresholds, and in
the fields to destroy crops-thus sick
ness and death are attributed to their
magic and malice.
In the course of the next day all the
people gathered in the square before
Pambeli's house-a mass of silent,
quaking men and women, for none
knew who the OWNERS would convict.
Pambeli himself sat silent and sorrow
stricken in the doorway of his hut; be-
fore him the witch-fnders.
They were three hideous and revolving
men wearing various charms upon their
filthy bodies, rows of cleaning teeth
around their necks, dried toads, with the
eyes VI hLiLllhlS huu bHhhc bh1Hcy b1Uu W
their waists, and quantity of clanking
metal bracelets on ankles and arms.
After some preliminary incantations
these three men suddenly leaped forward
and commenced their work of smelling
out" Ronnd and round the great circle
formed by the people they ran, some
times slowly with cunning gravity,
sometimes with almost incredible swift
ness, forever crying out one word,
"Eswa," and as the people repeating it
after them, sometimes loudly-then it
was dangerous-t whispering it, cry
ing it over and over again, running,
dancing, yelling, until the witch finders,
steaming with preparation, had dashed
themselves into state of hysterical fury,
shouting and shrieking with the widest
contortions of face and limb, till, after
one tornado OF final violence, they
swooped with the rapidity OF eagles upon
one startled girl, touched her with a
forked stick, and cried "Eswa," at their
loudest, while the covering crowd
breathed freer the next moment, and
then repeated the fatal word in one last
overwhelming shout.
1t was all over, the trial was finished,
the victim was selected, and naught re-
manned but the penalty to be pronounc-
ed. At the supreme moment of selec-
ton the people dropped away on either
side, and the girl stood alone, the focus
Of all eyes. After one fearful glance all
round, after one second of tense rigidity,
the woman fell forward in a stupor Of pit
liable terror. 1t was q sight no man
could ever forget. When those appoint
ed by the witch-doctors touched her she
rose shrielxing and struggling, but see
ing-probably knowing-the hopeless
ness of it all, she fell again at their
feet.
Late that night one of our Kaffir lads
an English-speaking mission boy called
Tom Oupe-came in and told us the wo- |
man had been taken to the woods, bound
TO a tree, her body smeared all over with |
while honey, a small train of it thickly |
laid near q white ants nest, and left. |
When the moon crept above the tops OF /
the trees Wood and arose, buckled on /
our revolvers and cartridge belts, and /
Oupe quietly. After going |
about a mile the boy crouched and 1
pointed, and Wood and / went forward /
alone. There was partial clearing in
the forest, and through the trees we
could see the plain beyond, then pass
ing 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 asin
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 crawling things, shiny millions were
creeping at our feet, and there before
us-in the white splendor of the moon
light-was the young girls body tied at
the foot of tree, eaten to death by
ants. "Travels in Zululand.