MURDER AND WITCHCRAFT AT THE MAURITIUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1181, 17 October 1884, Page 3

MURDER AND WITCHCRAFT AT THE MAURITIUS.

In December last there appeared in the Times some details respecting Ldamiim as practiced In Mauritius; and I bad intended ter follow them up with an account of the ceremonies observed, under official sanction; by the worshippers of the manifold gods of India. But an incident that hap pened lately has determined me to give witchcraft and the doings of witch-doctors the preference. The circumstance I allude to was an attempt made by two men, dab. biers in the black art, to carry off a young child in open day in one of the busiest streets of Port Louis for some diabolical purpose of their * own. Fortunately an alarm was raised by a boy, the girds brother, who was playing at a little distance away, and chase was made. The child was dropped, and the scoundrels got clear off. It may teem strange that in a ,colony like Mauri’ius hundreds of witch-doctors and professed sorcerers should exist and thrive, and it will appear still more strange that thousands of people should, implicity believe in them not among the ignorant only. Persons of education and social posis tion. not a few, are among their best clients. This to my personal knowledge. Indeed, the fact is too well known in the Colony to render it necessary for me to go out of my way in order to substantiate it. The; more educated classes believe in the precepts contained in a Ixiok known to the initiated as Petit Albert,” and either practice the doctrine it teaches themselves or employ others to make incantations for them. Either way, the system is equally degrading, The professors of this modern diablerie are of the lowest order, generally negroes with a spnnklirg of Indians among them, and, although they practise on the lines laid down in “Petit Albert,” not one in twenty ever saw the book or could read it if laid before them. The precepts it contains are handed down by word of month. But among ignorant people other teachings are mixed up with those of “ Petit Albert” and crime is sometimes resorted to in the preparation of charms. 1 have alluded to the attempt to kidnap a young child a short time a o. 1 will now relate an incident that occurred about three years ago—an incident that shook the whole community. A noted sorcerer, a black, named Picot, abducted a girl about six years old, and, after having fearfully maltreated her, cut her to pieces, with the object, it was averrgd, of using human desk tor diabolical purposes, Jhe crime was traced to him ; he was arrested, tried at assizes before - our late Chief Judge, Sir Adam Gib Ellis—now in the West Indies—ami condemned to be hanged. Sir George K; Bowen was Governor at the time, and before signing the death warrant the affair . was discussed in Executive Council, Sir A. G. Ellis, though not a member, being present. After sentence was passed upon him Picot declared that ho was beyond the power of the Government; that the authorities could not hang him ; his sorcery placed his life onfc of their reach. And now mark what followed. The Chief Judge lived a few miles out of town, and no sooner had sentence been passed than showers of stones fell upon his house night sfter nigh*. No sane person, free from superstition, has ever doubted that this was the work of Picot’s accomplices and friends, who, arming themselves with missiles, threw them unon the roof of the house, and then made off But the strangest part of the affair consists in the fact that the assailants could never be discovered. Night after night a volley of stones was discharged, but no trace could be obtained of the persons who threw them. What is of more importance is the fact that the Judged lady was nearly frightened to death, while the Judge himself, who, in condemning Pidot, alluded to the crime in the terms it deserved, pleaded so earnestly before tbe Executive Council for the man’s life that the sentence of death was reluctantly changed to one of imprisonment for life. These are simple facts. From that time “ Picotism ‘ has been as well a defined a terra in Mauritius as Dacoitism is in India, Master Picot is now well and hearty, and his friends exultiugly say that he bears a charmed life, for did he not openly defy tbc Government to. hang him ? Times's Port Louis correspondent.