7 
106 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
this part: of the world, it is very seldom that at the 
death of one of them any body is killed. These poor 
heathen think no torture cruel enough to inflict upon a 
wizard. Sometimes the accused will be tied to a tree 
and burned by a slow fire; at other times they will 
bind him and put him in the track of an army of bash- 
ikouay ants. | 
I remember the horrid sight I met one day; it made 
my blood freeze all over. I shall never forget the scene 
~ as long as I live. I was hunting in the woods for birds, 
when I spied two green pigeons (¢reron nudirostris), which 
I wanted for my collection of birds. By dint of great ex- 
ertions I penetrated the jungle to the foot of the tree, 
when lo! a ghastly-sight met my eyes. It was the corpse 
of a woman, young evidently, and with features once 
mild and amiable. She had been tied up here, on some 
infernal accusation of witchcraft, and tortured with a cru- 
elty which would have done honor to the Inquisition. 
The torture consisted in the laceration of the flesh all 
over the body, and fresh Cayenne pepper had been rubbed 
in the gashes. A cold perspiration covered my body ; 
my eyes became dim; “ Was it a dream?” I asked my- 
self. The devil himself could not have displayed more 
ingenuity in torture. I approached the corpse. It was 
cold. The poor girl was dead. What terrible sufferings 
she must have endured ! 
Will you think hard of me when I say to you that I 
felt I could go into that village of wild men and shoot 
every one of them? 
Aniemba! What a terrible meaning that word pos- 
sesses in the mind of the poor African of Equatorial Af- 
rica! To be bewitched is almost certain death. What 
