258 .\ATI\E SUPERSTITION AND (lUMi:. 



the idea that he was a wizard) confirmed his suspicion. Som- 

 cuba's hut was surrounded at night, set fire to. and he was killed 

 as he sought to escape, and his body thrown into the flames. The 

 son admitted his guilt, his accomplices remaining undiscovered. 



Close ties of kinship create no barrier of mercy when once 

 a man is banned. A few weeks before the last crime was 

 perpetrated (September. 191 1), but this time in Natal, a young 

 man named Manqane, assisted by a near relative, deliberately 

 planned the murder of his father. The death of three persons 

 was attributed to the latter by both these men. In pursuance of 

 tiieir plan, thev sought their victim in the open, killed him with 

 an axe, and hurriedly buried the body. Both were subsecjuently 

 convicted. 



The same year was witness to another tragedy in Natal. The 

 victim in this case, Magabela, was a wealthy man who was 

 thought to have recourse to witchcraft, and to have compassed 

 the death of a child of one of the prisoners. This man, with 

 two others, laid in wait for him in a donga, killed him with a 

 knife, and cast his body into the Tugela river. 



No distinction is drawn between witch and wizard, and her 

 sex afifords no protection to a woman. But little more than a 

 year ago, on a European farm in Natal, a native woman named 

 Mamadiba w^as believed to have compassed the death of two 

 children. The father of these children met her at a beer-drink, 

 and made it clear that he contemplated revenge. She fled in 

 alarm, but was pursued by this man and beaten to death with 

 knobkerries. The prisoner oftered no defence at the trial, merely 

 saying that the woman was an umtakati. 



Arsenical poisoning was resorted to in one instance as the 

 method of ridding the land of a supposed umtakati named Gwele. 

 This man was smelt out by a diviner as having killed another 

 man by witchcraft. These facts, and the manner of his death, 

 were clearly ])roved. l)ut a cons])iracy of silence rendered the 

 trial abortive, and those alleged to be implicated, and who were 

 indicted for the murder, were discharged. There are many other 

 instances of a similar nature in which there was no room fc^r 

 doubt that the motive for the crime was witchcraft, but in which 

 there was insufficient evidence to convict. 



It is a common idea that a girl may be l)ewitched by an 

 unsuccessful suitor, and his failure or refusal to remove the 

 s])ell may lead to serious consequences. In one such instance the 

 girl immediately reported the fact ; her lover, a man named 

 Cetshwayo, was ])ursued. and on his denial of the allegation 

 that he had bewitched the girl, and his refusal to return and set 

 her free, he was killed. 



The credulity of the natives in all matters savouring of 

 witchcraft and their unshaken faith in the powers of diviners 

 is well shown in an occurrence which took ])lace last year. A 

 batch of men went up from Zululand to work in Johannesburg. 

 Some three months later, as they were ])artaking of fermented 



