THE . " WITCH DOCTOR'S " SECRET. [To TER EDITOR 01
TIM "sexcreron."1 SIR,—The enclosed cutting from a recent issue of the Leeds Mercury will be of interest to your readers.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Y.
" The strange secret of the mysterious power exercised by the ` charm,' or talisman, of an African Witch Doctor,' as the wizards among the savages of most of the African native tribes are known, has been discovered by Mr. Crowther, the curator at the Museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society.
Some little time ago one of the most prized objects of a wizard in Uganda, the object by means of which he exercised his magical powers for the benefit of friend or the injury of enemy, came into the possession of a gentleman who determined to have its contents examined. For that purpose he brought it to Mr. Crowther.
It was a tightly rolled and bound cylindrical object a few inches long, with a long tail attached, and Mr. Crowther proceeded to loosen the binding cords and to unroll the .package. It turned out to be the dried skin of an African cat, minus the head, and con- taining one- or two smaller objects. The head had been cut off, but the claws of the four feet were all neatly tucked in, and the skin had then been rolled tightly up, with the tail hanging free. Inside the skin were the mysterious elements, in the potency of which the efficacy of the charm doubtless consisted, and examina- tion revealed the fact that they consisted solely of four common 'monkey' nuts, familiar to every small boy, and two torn pieces from a recent issue of the Spectator—nothing more. Whether it was the magic potency of the Spectator or the subtle influence emanating from the monkey nuts, or some mysterious influence residing in the catskin that enabled the wizard to curse his enemies or bring fortune to his friends, or blight the herds and crops of those against whom he or his patrons had a grudge, are interesting problems, but perhaps the problem of most interest in connection with the charm is, as Pope remarked of flies and grubs, hc., in amber, the `wonder how the devil they got there.' - Most people are familiar with the story of the old lady who, travelling in Egypt, paid a high price for the mummified form of a cat which her Arab escort discovered in a tomb, and which she prized beyond all her other treasures, until one day it was knocked down by a careless servant, and the discovery was made that the supposed sacred relic was nothing but a copy of a Birmingham newspaper wrapped in good imitation of mummy cloths. The explanation was, of course, that Birmingham among its many industries includes that of making mummies of all sorts and all ages, which are exported to Egypt for the profit of the natives and the satisfaction of curio collectors, just as Birmingham also manufactures and exports heathen gods on a wholesale scale to provide work for the missionaries, who probably travel on the same ship as the idols, both being bound for the same heathen land.
But these explanations will hardly fit the ease of the Spectator and the Uganda Witch Doctor. What probably happened was that some missionary in Uganda was in the habit of getting copies of the Spectator, and some enterprising native magician conceived the idea that there must be some strange power in the pages over which the white man pored with such earnestness and solemnity. Perhaps even it seemed to his untutored mind that these pages might contain the magic of the white men, or the words of the Great Spirit of whom the white medicine man preached. Anyhow, there was something of power and mystery about them, and seizing his opportunity, possibly when no one was watching the white man's waste-paper basket, the native magician seized some scraps of he paper, wrapped them in his catskin with his four monkey nuts, and forthwith became a personage of importance and power."
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