The herald., 1898-05-01

Tie SET Ol SplhC6 yum 10 q
specimen-goes out to look for human
victims. Why do they do this? Well,
for plumber, revenge-more often per-
haps pure devilishness; love of killing
and thirst for human blood. When it
is suspected in an African village that
a leopard-man is at work, the people
are in a pitiable state Of terror. Every
man is fearful of talking upon the sub
ject for fear the witch will know it and
make him the next victim. If the witch
is detected, his shrift is short one,
for the villagers wreak on him revenge
for all the fears they have undergone,
and loss of friends. But it often hap
pens that innocent men are accused
and that the leopard witch leads long
career of murder, undiscovered.
I'm this case the Barawaya men from
the first suspected the man who turned
out to be the real criminal. The inter-
prefer pointed him out to me one day
in Kongala. His name was Mobi and he
had come to the station with the other
villagers, having some commodities
to barter, and he had some money with
him, which is unusual among the ma
tives. He was 1.-THE, strongly built
man, of about thirty years, with eyes
furtive and savage Of expression. He
showed his teeth a great deal, and
looking at him, was struck by the
length of the buck or canine teeth in
his upper and lower jaw. His move
ments were remarkably smooth and
supple, and he walked noiselessly
about and said little. The other ma
tives plainly were much afraid of him,
but the interpreter said that sooner or
later, now that he was under suspicion,
some one of them in fit of fury would
probably kill him in revenge for some
relative lost.
But the leopard-man met his fate in
quite another way, about a month later
"a way that effectually proved his
guilt. Two hunters in my employ, who
lived at the station at Kongala, while
out for game, came near the village OF
Barawaya one day after nightfall, and
not wishing to arouse the people al
that hour, went into an empty hut in
the outskirts to pass the night. During
the night one of them was wakened by
cry outside and, looking out, saw ir
the moonlight what seemed to be q
leopard tearing at a woman on the
ground. The hunter seized his gun anG
fired at the brute from the doorway
With strange cry the creature rose
on its hind feet, faced the hunter for a
moment, then sprang into the shadows
of the forest and disappeared. The
hunters went to the woman, who was
dead, her throat being torn and hel
breast and arms terribly lacerated by
claws. They lost no time In leaving the
place and making the rest of their way
to the station, for they knew that II
the Barawaya people found them there
they would accuse them Of being re.
sponsible for the woman's death. The
hunters got to Kongala at daylight anc
told me what had happened.
1.-The hunters story was confirmed by
people from Barawaya the same day
The shot at the leopard had been heard
in the village, but no one had dared
leave his hut to try to find out the
cause Of the firing. In the morning the
villagers had found the woman's body
where she had been killed. and from
that spot followed a trail of blood
marks that led to Mobi's hut. There on
the floor the witch lay dead, with a
leopard-skin drawn over him, and a
gunshot through his body.
1.-The leopard skin I tried to buy, but
the natives already had destroyed II
through superstitious reasons. One OF
the spike-claws. the same that you hold
in your hands, one Of the hunters
picked up beside the leopard-man's vic
tim, and he gave it to me In proof that
his story was true"
Copyright, 1898, by The international
Literary and News Service.