St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-02
AFRICAN wITCHCRAFT.
Stecklemann Saw Some Strange
Sights in the Dark Continent.

Stecklemann Saw Some Strange
Sights in the Dark Continent.
Chicago News.
Garlic Stecklemann, the young In
dianian, is in Africa on his third trip.
In recent letter Mr.. Stecklemann gives
some facts about witchcraft among the
natives that will prove revelation in
America. He says:
The natives firmly believe in witch
cry, and are much excited because the
white men will not allow innocentS to
be murdered. They claim that, now
witches are protected by the powerful
white man, everybody will soon be
killed by witchery. However, it is GER
tain that this kind of religious eXecu-
tons will to some extent cease now, at
least in the immediate neighbOrhOod of
European station.
about three weeks ago, one evening
between and 10 O'clock, l was in
formed that a woman of nearby viii
lage had been accused ofhaying caused,
by witchery, the deaTh of a recently de-
ceased neighbor. The woman was poor
and old. Therefore public sentiment
was all against her, and conviction
certain. L called upon the French Gus
tom house officers, and, with him and
one of my assistants. was soon on the
way to the village. On our arrival we
found the customary dances had ceased /:
dead silence reigned in the village.
Overcome by the excitement and fa-
tlgue of the fetch dances, everybody
was sound asleep save the poor victim,
who, by a clever medicine man, had
been doomed to die on the following
morning. We found her securely fast
tened to the middle pillar of the M uar-
sa,' or palace house, fastened in a kneel-
ing posture in such a way that no
limb nor the body could be moved. She
was surrounded by about thirty to forty
men, strangers in the village, who were
aroused from their sleep by the loud
cries of the poor woman. who alone had
noticed us coming and no doubt in her
fright over the sudden appearance OF
the CHASTITY faces (the average African
trader looks more dead than aliye)
thought the devil himself had come to
fetch her.
Having carefully inquired, l found
the ringleaderS and fetch doctors were
known to me; so, aided by lantern light,
we caught one before he had time to es-
cape TO the bush with the others. We
found him to be an old chief from a dis
tant country who had come as prose
cutor, this woman having been
accused of having witched one OF
his family. The village chief him.
self was found in his hut and soon
overpowered. The fright over the sud
den appearance of white men was SO
great that no one even offered resist
ance. Without even the stroke of a
whip we had secured the desired CHI efs
and would-be murdererS. All the 9th
ers fled. After thorough search of the
village for arms and other articles OF
value to the natives, wherewith we
hoped to entiee some of the Porte to
give evidence, we arrived rear midnight
with the two prisoners. the supposed
witch, ten loaded flintlock e uns and
numerous idols, etc. The fetch doctor
was absent from the village at the time,
and fled afterwards, on hear,
ing what occurred. to the woods,
but was captured later on by sOul
men. The two chiefs and feticheur are
kept in chains at the Porte as warning
to others. The poor womali, whose own
SONS are said to have been participants
of the fetch rites, was sent tO the mis-
sion in Loando, for in her native cOun-
try her life is not safe.
white women are often sacrificed as
witches where there is no restraint, and
while their tOrtureS are severe, they
rarely commit suicide. Suicide is moi
much known among the natives of these
parts of Africa. While one hears oc7
casionally that a man committed the
rash deed, it is unknown that ever a
woman killed herself Intentionally"