Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-09-10
THE MATEBELE BUGABoo.
No Man Ever Saw Him, But Ho Gets All
Ills Priests Want.

His Priests Want.
The following Is an extract from n
private letter lately received from a
young Englishmau who was farming
ut Matabeleland at the time of the out
break
"The Makukukapane and Matoppo
Hill district, where the rising COM
menced, form very difficult country.
The natives living in the hills there
were always nuisance to Lo Ben, ana
when the columns came in they would
not fight for him, The company never
Lisarmed these men or took their cat
tie. They have been a great troub!s
ever since, and the native commissioners
could never go out that way without
six or eight police with him, and was
constantly getting fired on. Twice
II was announced that n large patrol
with big guns and Maxims was going to
knock them into shape and clear the
hills, but it never came off.
"In the Matoppo hills, in cave in 4
kraal of his own, dwells the M'limo, n
Makaklaka god, and though the Ma
tabele heartily despised these people,
their slaves, they feared their god very
much, though many professed to dis
believe in him. He was always thorn
in the flesh to old Lo Ben, and to Mozeli-
katie before him.
"There is not, believe, any such per-
son as the M'limo. 1t is merely II
swindle, run by circle of men who
wear their hair long and call them"
selves his sons. No one, white or black,
has ever seen the M'limo. The method
of procedure is that the sons go round
the people and drum up presents for the
god to insure good crops, etc. These
presents, or offerings, are placed in tho
mouth of the cave and-disappear. He
is consulted from the mouth of the cave
and whether it is n whispering gallery
or ventriloquism is used no one knows;
but the niggers are immensely i'm
pressed by receiving answers from al
apparently empty cave. Ever since
the occupation of this country by III
the natives have attributed all thei
Ills to us. They said we brought thu
locusts, regardless of the fact that they
were here two years before, and so on
but what rolled them most was thr
drought and consequent famine for tive
years past. They said we stopped th'
rain by shooting the crocodiles. Th'
Mlimo then, who is at the bottom o
the rising, had an easy task. He to-,
:he people that when the white mem
blood was shed the rain would come
that Lo Ben was alive and coming witt
an impi from the north, and that he ha,
made spell which would turn all tn
white mems bullets into water. He too,
advantage, too, of the eclipse of tn
moon n short time back, saying he har
done it as a sign to them, as also he hat
brought the rinderpest; but for som
obscure reason he forbade the peop'
TO loot. The rising was planned for tn
Goth of March, the day of the full moon
rhe plan was simplicity itself. Ever.
nigger was to rise and murder hi
master in the night; but the plan wa
spoiled by the murder of a native police
man, causing the district l named be
fore to rise prematurely. Curiousl
enough, on the Goth the rain came a
last in deluges. The natives are grun
bling terribly about :he M'limo no
having kept his contract about tn
bullets turning into water, and he re
plies that they spoiled his spell by loot
ting when he told them not to do so."-
ST. James Gazette.