John Bull's Latest Conquest. PONDOLAND.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 271, 24 March 1894, Page 4

John Bull's Latest Conquest. PONDOLAND.

(Continued.) Now commences the real business of 41 smelling out " to which the former is only a preliminary. At the dead of night, when nothing is to be heard save the occasional lowing of cattle, the wies of the night birds or the beasts of prey which infest the woods, the doomed man and Ms family are roused out of their-sleep by the shouting and howling of a numerous but unwelcome body of visitors— the relatives and friends of the deceased who have come to avenge his murder. The attacking party then commence j operations by setting fire to all the , huts on the kraal— an easy matter as ; they are thatched— shooting or stabbing anyone of the accused's family who attempt to make their escape. It seldom happens that anyone staying in the kraal that night escapes everyone whom the avengers see is killed if possible ; wives (of whom the Poudoshaveas many as. they can afford to buy), children and friends, with very few exceptions, fall victims to this bloodthirsty and barbarous custom. When the slaughter is finished the attacking party collect and drive away the cattle, horses and sheep which are found on the place, and proceed home, where *the plunder is divided, one-balf of the spoil going to the Great Place, which i« the real- , dence of the Paramount Chief of the country, one half of the remainder 1 being given to the witch-doctor as a Toward for his information, and the residue is usually killed and eaten, all the inhabitants of the immediate neighbourhood being invited to lend hands, or rather, capacious mouths, at the feast— and when a Pondo feasts he means business, and will gorge until he can hardly stand it occosionally happens that the man who is to be " smelled-out " obtains information of the nocturnal vieit about to be paid him, and then, as a matter of course, the visitors meet with a very warm reception, and the tables are completely turned. In the case of the death or illness oi a chief a num ber of families are " emelled-out." I remember when Cetewayo, not the great Zulu chief but a son of the then .Paramount Chief, was ill, twenty people who were supposed to have bewitched him were killed, when, as a matter of fact, he only had an attack of the horrors. He very soon recovered irom his sickness, and, as a natural conclusion, the ignorant and superstitious people thought that his speedy return to health was due solely to the sacrifices made on his behalf The Pondi>s used to say that when Chaka, a Zulu and the greatest and most successful chief who ever ruled over the Xosa races, and whom they all swear by to the present day, died, no less than five hundred people were " smelled-out." (To be continued.)