TRIBAL MAGIC.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 13

TRIBAL MAGIC.

Witch Doctors Still Hold Sway. (Special to., the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, December 14. “ Thpre is a tendency among the native? to return to their old customs,” said Pastor C. Palmer, who arrived here in* the Zealandia, after having spent 'six years! at Fiji and Tonga in the mountains. “ The spirits of the dead are worshipped,” he said. “ Recently there was an extraordinary’- example of tribal magic. Several men who were plotting the death of a young chief secured the service of a witch doctor. Tie obtained some of the victim’s food, put it through processes and buried it where the chief’s shadow would fall on it. The young chief died, although doctors pronounced him to be in perfect health. “ Several men were tried for having caused the death, and one was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. The natives have great faith in their witch doctors. and the ability of some of them in the use of herbs cannot be denied. “In Tonga, although the Queen arranges the marriages between her subjects, the young people are beginning to object, and run-away marriages are becoming common. Still the Queen has great power, and those who marry the mate she chooses regard marriage as a duty.”