The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-03-30
ZULU MAGIC,
Bodies Raised in the Air by Some Power
Unknown to Europeans.

Unknown to Europeans.
Professor Kellar in the North Amer
lean Review, says: During the Zulu
war l was in South Africa, travelling
north through Zululand. In Dunn's
reservation, 200 miles north from
Durham, in Natal, saw witch doc
tor levitate the form of young Zulu
by waving tuft of grass about his
head, amid surroundings calculated
to impress themselves deeply upon
the most prosaic imagination.
twas evening and the witch doctor,
who belonged to the class described
more than once by Rider Haggard
with great accuracy, was as revolving
in his appearance as the high-caste
fakirs had been pleasing. A number
of fakirs had gathered about our
campfire, and 1 had given them some
illustrations of my own skill. They
seemed puzzled, but were not specially
curious. One of them stole away,
and after some minutes returned with
their own conjurer, the witch doctor
in question.
After considerable solicitation
from the natives, the intricacies of
which my knowledge of the Zulu Ian
guage did not enable me quite to
penetrate, the conjurer, who at first
seemed reluctant to give his consent
to an exhibition of his powers before
me, took knob kerry or club and
fastened it at the end of a thong of
rawhide about two feet long. The
young native, tall and athletic, whose
eyes appeared to be fixed on those
OF the conjuror with an apprehensive
steadiness, took his own knob kerry
and fastened it at the end of similar
thong of hide. The two then stood
about six feet apart, in the full glare
of the fire, and began, all the while
in silence, to twirl their knob kerries
about their heads. l noticed that
when the two clubs seemed, in their
swift fight, almost to come in con-
tact, spark or flame passed or ap-
pearod to pass from one to the other
the third time this happened there
was an explosion, the spark appeared
to burst, the young mans knob kerry
was shattered to pieces and he fell to
the ground apparently lifeless.
The witch doctor turned to the
high grass a few feet behind us and
gathered handful of stalks about
three feet long. Standing in the
shadow and away from the fire he
waved, with a swift motion exactly
similar to that of the clubs few min
utes before, the bunch of grass
around the head of the young Zulu,
who lay as dead in the freight. In
a moment or two the grass seemed to
ignite in its flight, although the
witch doctor was not standing within
twenty feet of the fire, and burned
slowly, cracking audibly. APP
preaching more closely the form of
the native in the trance the coniuror
waved the flaming grass gently over
his figure, about a foot from the flesh.
10 my intense amazement the recum-
bent body slowly rose from the
ground and aoated upward in the air
to height of about three feet, re-
in suspension and moving up
and down, according as the passes Of
the burning grass were slower or
faster. As the grass burned out and
dropped to the ground the body re-
turned to its position on the ground,
and after few passes from the hands
Of the witch doctor the young Zulu
jumped to his feet, apparently none
the worse for his wonderful expert
ence.