NATlX'l'. SL'l'l'iKSrl rio.X AND ( KIMI-:. 26I 



section was conveyed at nii^lil to the Pongola ri\cr, into wliich 

 it was thrown. Eleven of the thirteen ])risoners, inchuhnii; the 

 Chief, were convicted. The Chief himself was a fine specimen 

 of the best class of Zulu, a son of Mnyamana, the late P^rime 

 Minister of the nation ; beloved by his tribe, respected even by 

 his enemies ; conspictiously loyal to the British (lovernment 

 whom he faithfully served, and under whom he had succeeded 

 to the Chieftainship; yet, imbued with all the untutored instincts 

 of the savage, he fell a prey to the superstitious beliefs of his 

 race. 



Certain relations of this Chief were indicted a year or so 

 later for the murder of another old man who had suffered death 

 by strangulation, and whose body had been mutilated. Flesh 

 and fat, containing human hairs, were found in the possession 

 of one of the prisoners, a doctor; but the death of the principal 

 witness and the reltictance of others to give evidence resulted 

 in an acquittal. 



It may have been observed that in both these cases the 

 method of killing was similar. When a human sacrifice is re- 

 quired it is necessary that no weapon should be used ; the victim 

 is seized and killed WMth the hands, it matters not whether by 

 suffocation or, as is most usual, by twisting the head until the 

 neck is dislocated. Whatever device is followed, it must be one 

 which causes no external injury. In more than one instance 

 where a district surgeon has been led to assign the cause of 

 death to injuries, which are afterwards shown to have been in- 

 flicted post-mortem, a subsequent examination has revealed a 

 dislocation of the neck. Some five years ago a boy was mur- 

 dered for medicinal purposes ; his eyebrows and lips cut off, and 

 the body thrown into a river, where it remained for some days. 

 The medical report considered that death might have been due 

 to drowning, and that the portions missing might have been eaten 

 oft" by crabs ; but evidence to the contrary having established the 

 real facts, the body was exhumed and the neck found to be 

 broken. 



The prisoner in a recent case was said to be an accredited 

 wizard who wanted human fat. The body was not discovered 

 for more than a year, and an examination of the skeleton showed 

 that a twisted neck was the only injury ascertainable. There 

 was, however, insufificient proof to connect the accused (Umzu- 

 beki) with the crime. 



Seven men, one of them a doctor, were all found to have 

 taken part in the murder of a boy of 13, four or five years ago, 

 near the Usutu kraal in Zululand. They enticed him into a 

 donga and killed him in the usual way. The eyebrows, lips, and 

 Other parts were removed, and the body thrown into a pool. 

 This particular boy was probably selected because his father 

 and other male relations were dead, and his mother was a sickly 

 woman. There was no one, therefore, who would be likely to 

 worry about the matter. The mother was discouraged from 



