Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09

ony, were completely carried away by lie
White and committed almost as great e1-
travagances under his influence as the most
besotted of his own people.
vENTRILoQUIsM USEFUL TO THEM.
The inferior sort of Maori magicians un-
doubtedly employ ventriloquism very large
ly to perform their necromancy. They pre-
tend to conjure up the dead in dark room,
that is to say, WHARF, or house, filled with
agitated, agonized relatives of the deceased,
and lit only by the flicker of small wood
fire in the center; and as soon as they have
worked the assemblage up to the right pitch
of excitement and credulity, they initiate
the well-known voice of the dead with won
derfuI accuracy and make it sound as if 1t
were passing through the wall or coming up
from the depths of the earth, or dying away
through the roof into the sky. They are
also believed to practice mesmerism and
even to possess some secrets of hypnotism,
animal magnetism or some such agencies,
which are totally unknown to European SCI
ence.
The st-angest power OF all, however,
which these ghostly deceivers claim, or
rather which they are credited with by
others, is that of bewitching or bedeviling
without touching or seeing their victim. 1t
is enough if they merely send any article,
an ornament, pipe, a scarf, letter, or
even message, and it is accepted by the
person to whom it is sent. That person, not
knowing that he is bewitched, becomes low
spirited, loses his appetite, feels pricking
in his blood and trembling in his joints,
grows weaker daily both in body and mind,
and ends by going off to some lonely place
to die. How this is done nobody has ever
been able to explain, and it is only natural
for the natives to believe that it is magic.
NOT SUBTLE PoIsoNERs.
Some scientific authorities have declared
that it is the effect of q subtle poison con-
veyed In the article that is sent; just as the
poisoners of the Middle Ages used to de-
stroy their victims by present of pair of
gloves, or even lingering, and Just as
the Gar of Russia was suspected to have
been poisoned only a few weeks ago by the
German uniform he wore during his visit
to Berlin. But this theory will not bear
examination. In the first place, there is no
evidence to show that the Maoris have ever
been acquainted with poisons. Then, the
articles which apparently cause death to the
doomed recipient are carried without harm
by a messenger, often a woman or p child,
and are handled or worn by numbers of
other people who suffer no injury. Finally,
this description of witchcraft is Just as
effective when only message is sent, or
when the victim is beguiled into touching
some particular object or going to some par
ticular spot which has been tapu'd for that
purpose, as it is when a material substance
is conveyed to him from the magician.
Of course, there is some natural explana-
tion o! it and probably a very simple one;
but nobody outside Of the ranks of the ma
gicians knows what it is, and probably the
magicians themselves are not familiar with
each others methods. They never mention
the subject under any circumstances, but
lead solitary and ascetic life, and many of
them absolutely disclaim any magical power
at all and even affect to throw dlscredit on
the whole thing, when questioned by Euro
peans.
A MAGICIAN STONED TO DEATH.
Quite recently young woman of rank on
the east coast, where the wealthiest and most
civilized Maoris live, having incurred the
enmity of family one of whose members
was a noted magician, received a trifing
gift from him, under the belief that it came
from relative of her own. She became
pouri, that is respondent or brooding, which
is always the first symptom of being be-
witched. and after going through the regu-
lar course, died in agony in about three
weeks. He father and brothers went to the |
lonely hut where the magician lived and |
stoned bim to death in his sleep. They gave
up, pleaded guilty on their trial,
and we're sentenced to be hanged. But pub |
lie opinion, both among Europeans and |
Maoris, was so strongly in their favor that |
the Governor remitted the sentence
The highest authorities on the Maoris and |
their traditions say that the secrets of their i
magic arts have been handed down in par
,icular families, ior at least 900 years, the
records of the Friestly caste, who are identi-
,al with the magicians, having been proved |
70 exist for that period. There is good
reason to believe that Maori magic and
witchcraft came with the Maoris by a sue
session of migrations from Asia, and are an
actual survival of the arts of the Chaldean
and Egyptian sorcerers. There is practi-
,ally no difference at all between witchcratt
Is it exists in New Zealand to-day and
Eitchcraft as it existed in Judea 1000 years
ago, according to the graphic descriptions
N the Gospel narrative.
EDWARD WAKEFIELD.