SORCERIES OF THE WITCH DOCTORS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 25 August 1922, Page 1

SORCERIES OF THE WITCH DOCTORS.

(By K. F.. S. Dewdney.) Into Nairobi native hospital there staggered the other day a native youth as pale a* a nigger ever tan he. He said ho was ""'ill. very ill, iu fact, m'gon'ua saua. His eyes protruded in an uneannv fashion, he was quivering violently from head to foot, there were several small sores on his, back, and he complained'of extra-strong -'pins and needles*' tip and down his legs. The doctor sounded him. felt his pulse, listened through his stethoscope, and did all the other things that doctors do when they get :i uew case. Kverytiiiug showed tiie vmith was as sound as a l,ell—vet he was obviously ill. -A. lew judicious question- solved the problem The bov said a neighbor who had the evil eye had cast a spell over him—lie was bewitched. . An ordinarv medico might have poohpoohed the idea. Not so the Kenya doctor, who knows only -too well what ni;»"ie is among the native tribes, even in semi-civilised East Africa, and how impossible it is even for modern medical science to do anything to wunbni.it. Kor those who are bewitched there is at present, no known cure. There are many fully authenticated instances of magic which have passed Europeans' comprehension. Quite recently a Kikupu had a speh put on him bv a witch-doctor, wher.-by ho was compelled to kill the first iran he met. The Kikuyu went to another witch-doctor and had the spell removed. Bui No. 1 was cuie. He placed a medicine on the Kikupu's doorstep so that when the- latter stepped over it the spell would be replaced. The Kikuyu came out of his hut shortly aftenvards. immediately ran avnik. went down the street, and killed the first man he lpet— another old Kikuyu.

The wilch-docior and the murderer both stood their fatal trial, and the witch-doctor got the longer sentence. At a place called Kibos there one© lived an old gentleman who carried around a monkey's paw strapped to his finger. "Whoever he poiuted this at immediately fell down stone dead. He caused so many deaths that he ultimately had to be removed from the district by the Government. There is a Eider Haggard touch about the iluee natives who were found squatting one evening around a bowl of clear water, occasionally prodding it with sticks. On being asked what ihey w_ere doing, they replied tbat they were killing a native cook employed by a white man in the nest village, ieinmlcs away. The following morning it v. as found that the unfortunate cook had actually died at that verv hour.

What actually brings the phy.si«:al symptoms oi" the bewitchment has never \~ct been discovered. The natives" very real belief in it. combined with a liiile auto-suggestion, hypnotism, and perhaps a little judicious poison now and then are possibly the main causes. I'orhaps there is .something deeper. Anyway, the result* are very tangible, and are beyond the white man's power t-' cure. A white doctor, when confront'.' ? with a witchcraft case, usually seuiltlie patient back to his village to ■:

"de-witched"" by sonic other and i-i •• powerful magician than the one v.» i east the spell. Some district officers have occ.*--: >'■■■ '■- ly found that a large glass of V•< --- tor sauce, pepper, and vinegar is <••""•- - tive. By the time the patient has hi' '- ed coughing and spluttering it is so»i* - times found the evil spirit has been * ? - orcised. But there is much the European stii, lias to learn about the black man d magic.