Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-15
HOW STORIES SPREAD IN ORIENT
False Rumors That Have Caused Brit
ish Much Trouble.

False Runors That Have Caused Brit
ish Much Trouble.
A remarkable story is being told in
Mandalay to account for the ravages
of the plague. The city has been sore
ly afflicted. A month ago people were
dying at the rate of sixty day. Bus
mess was practically at a standstill,
and two thirds of the population had
fed. Not the worst feature Of the
panic was the credence given to
widespread rumor that the pestilence
was the result Of the royal visit.
. While their Royal Highnesses, 1t
was said, were in Mandalay, the prin-
cess had dreamed that some Burmese
had tried to murder her. She told no
one, the story goes, at the time, but
when the royal party reached Ran
coon, on the way back to India, she
informed the prince, who gave orders
to the lieutenant governor OF the prov
ince to have a number of Burmese In
Mandalay put to death. In obedience
to this ruthless command men were
sent up country, such is the legend, to
poison the wells and strew poison
about the roads; hence the terrible
mortality. Even makers Of soda water
were bribed, it is alleged, to put poison
into all bottles sold to the Burmese.
The scare, ridiculous as 1t may
seem, says the London Evening Stand
ard has taken hold OF the credulous
natives and they have gone so far as
to appoint a committee Of safety,
which sends out parties Of young men,
armed with slaves and "dahs" at night,
to look out for suspicious strangers.
The panic has extended, we are told,
to the villages in the vicinity Of Man.
dalay, and three Europeans, who were
out shooting recently, were accused by
the country folk Of being poisoners,
and had to fly for their lives.
How stories of this kind first get
abroad it is seldom possible to discov-
er, but every one who has lived In the
east knows how readily they are swal-
lowed by an ignorant and credulous
people. No invention Is too preposter-
Gus to find believers. Sometimes the
gossip Of an Indian bazaar is that the
government requires quantities OF hu-
man blood wherewith to anoint the
foundations of bridge or other public
building which 1t Is about to erect.
Every family in the district will be in
fever of apprehension lest its children
shall be seized and murdered for the
purpose. Many old travellers relate in
stances Of such panic, which have also
occurred within quite recent times.
In some parts of the Punjab people
have gone in terror Of the Mummy
Sahib," an atrocious European who is
supposed to abstract his victims brains
through a hole bored in their skull, US
ing the extract in the preparation of
a particularly valuable and efficacious
puted to pay a fee to the government
for license to carry on his enefarfous
trade. Not many years ago a native
official in Assam was prosecuted for
circulating a report to the effect that
the government had ordered list Of
marriageable girls to be compiled, in
order that they might be distributed
as a reward to the officers and men of
a military force serving on the from
tier
In this case the origin of the rumor
could be traced, and its inventor had
evidently purposed to make a little
money by promising, for considera-
ton. to withhold the names of any girls
whose friends and relatives desired to
save them from such fate. AS gen.
eral rule however, the agency which
starts the libel remains a mystery.
Nor does any one know to this day
who despatched the first of the Ill
omended cakes which were sent about
from village to village, as waiEinS Of
trouble to come on the eve Of the r1u-
tiny of 1857. What is certain Is that
horrible and malignant rumors like
that current in Mandalay met with
ready acceptance, and that, once in
circulation, they are not quickly eradi- |
Gated. Whatever the authorities may
do. it is quite likely that as long as the
royal visit to Burma is remembered IL /
will be connected with the plague, anu
that graybeards who are now children |
will be ready to explain how the affair |
came about.
The eastern idea of justice Is not |
that which prevails in the west. A
Persian historian relates of the Sultan |
Alptegin that, when one Of his follow
ers had been found guilty of stealing
poultry, he sentenced the man to
icath, but, relenting. ordered him to
be driven through the army, with the
puricined fowls, still alive, hung by
their legs to his ears. The writer gives
a graphic description of the tortures
suffered by the thief as the birds In
their fright tore at his face. and he
adds THE news of this fact having
reached the ears of the people. they
agreed that so upright and just a SOW
ereign was worthy to be their ruler
1t would not be surprising If the story
of the poisoned wells at Mandalay
came eventually to be told with the
corrolary that 1t only proved the sa-
pa city and statecraf IT of the ShahZadah,