The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-09-05

: NIGERIA
WORLDS DARK SPOT

From the London Telegraph.

From the London Telegraph.
P. Amaury Talbot, a district commits
| sioner for Southern Nigeria, accom-
panied by his wife, has just returned
from nearly two years travelling ! n
parts of Nigeria, large portions OF which
have never before been visited by a
| government official, and certainly new
er by a white woman Fol the first
time a survey, meteorological, botan-
ical, and in parts geographical and ZOO
logical. has been completed almost I'M
i~nterruptediy from the Gulf Of Guinea
| right through to Central Africa.
Describing some Of his experiences in
the Southern Nigerian bush-the ho1ne
OF witchcraft-Mr. Talbot said:
9TH bush with its soft green twi-
light, dark shadows. and qutvering
lights, is peopled by many %terrors. but
among these 'Ojie,' or witchcraft. reigns
supreme. The bird which flies in at
your open door in the sunlight, the bat
| which circles round you at night, the
| small b~ushbeasts which cross your path
while hunting, all may be familiars of
witch or wizard or even the latter
themselves, disguised to do 0 hurt.
Sometimes the terror of Witchcraft will
| scatter a whole town.
Should the suspicion Of witchcraft
fail upon anyone, only trial by ordeal
can free him. The most usual one is
that of eating esere. a poisonous bean,
| which almost invariably kills the suS-
| pected person. The ordeals of boiling
oil poured upon the palms of the hands.
and of peppercorns inserted in the eyes,
are far less dreaded, not only because
their results are practically never fatal.
but because the physical anguish en-
tailed is acknowledged to be less in
tense than that caused by esere."
One OF the most interesting discover
les was that of the Lake of the Dead.
in the Oban country.
itFTln n ~ -nf fhSc o1r " -otl n
Talbot, occurs in many of the tribal
songs. but for a long time 1 could not
discover the meaning of the word. and
| all inquiries failed to elicit information,
and when l believed l was in the neigh
borhood of this haunted spot and alter
ed my curse my carriers begged to be
allowed not to proceed, and were left
behind. After a struggle through dense
bush we could see the edge of a sheet
of water, along the banks of which We're
the holes of crocodiles. whose tracks
covered the shore.
"Ihe scene was a weird one; the sur
face was absolutely still. n round
about We're bushes 10 feet high with
what were apparently great tufts Of
creamy flowers. Those. however. prov
ed to be nests Of tree frogs. The place
is a sanctuary for all wild things. for
no hunter would dare to penetrate the
bush to this dreaded spot. AS we stood
at the edge, gaSng out over the water.
its quiet was suddenly broken by a
broad ripple, and little fish were seen
to spring agitatedly above the surface.
A great python was crossing. and this,
we learned, shared with the c~rocodiles
the guardianship of the sacred lake.
Nothing, we were informed, must
be allowed to trouble the water or ever
to QUO it's outer edge, or a famine
and pestilence would ensue. Here, ac-
cording to popular belief, come by night
| tho ohNctc Of lon o. 1ao1 ENIytN 70 Il r;T;
in sad companies, hopeless and waiting,
over the surface of the water. Even
in the bright sunlight the place has an
uncanny look, n one can easily i'm
agine that at midnight, when the white
mists simmer ghostlike in the light
of the moon, people with the terror and
mystery of the bush in their blood
would rather sit chatting round the fire
or dance by torchlight in the open
spaces of the towns, han seek out this
uncanny spot, on the chance of hold
ing communion with the spirits of their
long dead kin"