STRANGE SUICIDE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1189, 12 September 1874, Page 3

STRANGE SUICIDE.

The following is a translation of the document written in Chinese found upon the Celestial Lee Tang Wun, who hanged himself at the Old Melbourne Cemetery lately : " Gentlemen of all Districts know what I am saying. — About 15 years ago I was cook at the Chinese Joss House, Emerr»ld Hill, choßen by the Gods and the gentlemen. After stopping there some time, my cousin and many other people became jealous of me, so that ultimately I left ; and then, in about two years, I went to work in a claim at White Sand Flat with Chun Go and Leung Kee for mates, also Lee Tv and Lee Ah Ching. I found that they were stealing gold from me, and had a row with them. They told my cousins Lee Quon and Lee Moo, Lee Tung, Lee Ling, Lee Foy, and Lee Xi Ching, all of one family, having one grandfather, and mixed up all my countrymen about Creswick Creek in the row. At this time they began to persecute me, and Chin Gow and Lee Sing left for Castlemaine to get some poison, which on their return they mixed with spirit and gave to me. After I had taken it my eyes, nose, ears, and skin became much swollen. Chun Qnock Chune then gave me some stuff and put poison on my blankets, so that when I was in bed I found needles pricking me all over. I then left that place, and went back to Creswick Creek. Sum Me Yang kept opium shop, and I stopped with him for a short time, but I became worse. I got some pig's gut at the butcher's, and found some poison on it. I cooked and ate it, and became red and white on my face, and was otherwise much worse. I met Leong Oh, who gave me pigeon's head, which stopped dyseutery I had suffered. Leong Oh said this would do me good ; but that if I did not take care the disease would come out, and I should become rotten. Ah War, Ah Yeong, and Ah Mon put poison on pork, and sold the pork to me, which I ate, and found that I then became very bad in my liver and lungs. Sun Yue Lee and Luy Ah Wy got a key by which means they entered my hut while I was absent, and put poison on all my food. I saw it and noticed it at once. After this Ah Yee and PingCoooy got it put in the newspapers about me having the leprosy, aud the police make inquiry, and wanted me

to go to the blacksmith's forge to test whether I was a leper; but I did not go. All my letters from China were stopped." The writing, which evidently had not beea finished, broke off here. The reference to the blacksmith's forge indicates that the deceased was asked to submit himself to a test to decide whether he had leprosy, it being held that exposure of the face to the heat of a forge will cause the disease to show on the skin. It is supposed that the deceased was tainted with leprosy, and that his relatives gave him medicine (which he called poison) to cause the disease to appear immistakeably, so that he would be driven out of the camp and condemned to the miserable life of a confirmed leper. — Argus.