The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-06

his tricks. At last however. he met one who was more than his match. This man took an ordinary turnip and made it change into a human face. How he did it the Belgian conjurer has never suc- ceeded in discovering.
 Some of these African wizards profess to be able to turn themselves into lions or other animals and so travel vast dist ances and find out the plans of their en- emies. Be this as 1t may. 1t is quite cer- tain that these tribes have means of finding out with telegraphic rapidity oc- currences at great distances.
 About five years ago Dr. R. W. Felkin accompanied Emin Pasha on a tour through Uganda and the territory behind it The Doctor then travelled northward toward the Soudan. At last he got to Lado. about a thousand miles south of Khartoum. One morning a local wizard told him that during the previous night he had been at Meschera el Rek, on the Nile. $50 miles away, and that two steam CTS had just arrived there.
 The Doctor, who had been away from civilization so long that he knew nothing of the retalxing of the Soudan, laughed at the news. But the m logo, or wizard insisted that it was true, described the people on the boats and spoke of one Englishman, short, with a big head, who had letters for Dr. Felkin. He said he was coming to Lado, and would be there in about thirty days. Thirty-two days later Lupton Bey arrived with letters As for the wizard, the. Doctor believes that he never was more than a few miles away from his native village In his life. It seems certain that he and others of his kind must have a far greater com mand over the mysteries of telepathy than any Europeans.
 The Zufus and other South African natives have means of distributing news of which we know nothing. The relief of Mafeking was known the next day in Zululand and also 700 miles away in the interior of Cape Colony. It has been sug- gested that runners carry the news from village to village, that men shout from hilltop to hilltop, or that smoke signals are employed. None of these explanations Is sufficient, for news travels in a fiat. forest country and even across sea as quickly as among the South African kopjes.
 The celebrated African traveller. Cap tain W.ellby, had an utterly unexplain- able experience when a fortnights jour ney south of Adis Adeeba, in Abyssinia. man rushed into camp shouting Wal amoi Walamo!" He fell down in a fit and was a raving lunatic for many hours His men told the explorer that they were in the country of the Walamo, or devil possessed" people. These, they declared were able to drive a man mad and it was dangerous to eat in their presence. One of Captain Wellby's men did so, and he, too, went mad. Resolved to put an end to his superstition. the Captain him self ate meal before about hundred of the Walomo. He thought no more about it until the next morning, when he found himself miserably i'll, although up to that date he had not been i'll a single day during his journey.
 He confesses that he could find no cause for the evil effects resulting from a con tact with these curious people. The Wa lamo were by no means repulsive. The men were tall and powerful, and the wo- men very good-looking. They were, he adds, always laughing and full of fun. The papaloi, or obeah man. exercises the most absolute dominion over the ne- groes in our West Indian islands. espe- | cially Jamaica He has secrets behind him which give him this power Some of the wizards have for instance. the power of infecting an enemy with lep- | rosy. Their knowledge of poisons is far | beyond that of the European druggist Quite recently the old and trusted servant | of British official in Jamaica went off | his head and was evidently unable to un- derstand what was said to him. His wife | declared that he must have unwittingly | offended the obeah man.
 His master said that was all nonsense | and put the man under the care of a | first-rate European doctor. After three weeks, during which the unfortunate man | got steadily worse, the doctor gave him
 up as incurable. His wife thereupon took | him up the mountain to the obeah mans house. The latter examined him and then
 mixed some leaves into a thick green paste and made him eat them. Three days later he was quite we'll again.