Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-01-06
Znlu Magic.

Znlu Magic.
From High Castle Indian Magic" BY Prof Ksllar,
In North American Review for JanuaIy.l |
During the Zulu war l was in
South Africa. travelling through Zulu>
land. In Dunn's reservation, two
hundred miles north from Durban in !
Natal, saw . witch doctor levitate |
the form Of young Zulu by waving
tuft of grass about his head, amid
surroundings calculated to impress
themselves deeply upon the mos,
prosaic Imagination. It was evening.
aud the witch doctor, who belonged
to the elias. described more than once
by Rider Hagpard with great &C.
euracy, was - revolving in his appear.
snce as tho high caste takirs had been
pleasing. A number Of fakirs had
gathered about our camp FIRE and /
had given them some illustrations of
my own skill. They seemed puzzled
but were not specially curious. One
of them stole away aud after some
minutes returned with their own con-
jurer, the witch doctor in question.
After considerable solicitation fro m
the natives, the intricaci-s Of which
my knowledge Of the Zulu language
did Tot enable mo quite to penetrate,
the conjurrr. who vt first Sc. med re-
luc,a"t to give his con.ent to ~ ~x-
hibition Of his powers before me, took
u knob kerry or club and fastened It
ut the end of thong OF rawhide abou,
two feet long A young native, tall
ant athletic, whose eyes appeared to
be fixed upon those Of the coniurer
with IN apprehensive s.esdfastness,
took his own knob kerry aud taste ned
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, al the while in silence, to
whirl their knob kerrys about their
head. l noticed that when the two
clubs SEEMED in their swift flixht
almost to come in contact, q spark or
flame passed or appeared to pass from
one Of them to the other. The third
time this happened there was an ex-
plosion, tho spark appeared to burst,
the young mans knob kerry was
shattered to pieces, and he fell to the
ground apparently lifel-ss. The witch
doctor turned to the high grass q few
fee. behind u and gathered n handful
of stalks about three {. tlong. Stand>
ing III the shadow and away from the
fire, ha waved, With q swift, motion,
exactly similar 10 that OF the clubs
few minutes before, the bunch Of
grass around the head Of the yourg
Zulu, who Law as dead. in the freight.
In moment or two the grass seemed
to ignite in its fight. although the
witch doctor was not standing within
twenty feet of the fire, and burned
slowly, cracking auditlv. Approach.
ing more closely the form Of the ma.
tive in the trance the conjurer waved
the flaming grass gent over his
figure, about foot from the
flesh. To my intense amazement the
'ecumbent body slowly rose from the
ground and foa.ed upwards in the air
to a height OF about three feet, r..
naming in suspension and moving up
aud down. according Is the passes of
tho burning grass were slower or
faster. As the grass burned out and
dropped to the ground the BODY re-.
turned to its posi,icn on the ground,
and after few passes from the hands
Ut the witch doctor, the Young Zulu
leaped to his feet, apparently none
the worse for his wonderful expert
ence.