FIENDISH DEED

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 June 1916, Page 3

FIENDISH DEED

CHILD BOILED IN iBBXXT'H. Suva, May 23. Down at Loiua Loma, some 180 miles from Suva, a man land his wife fell foul of the Fijian chief in their district. The chief vowed vcngeance. One day the husband and wife were obliged to leave their hut for a coupio of hours. They left their young child, aged only a tew months, behind in a safe spot. On their return they found to their horror that the clrildi had disappeared. They searched .ligli andi low for hours, but when darkness fell they were in despair. A pot or yams and some meat had been stewing si on »y on some embers. The woman lifted tlie lid. ■ ;lhere she saw a terrible sight and', shrieked wildly, "My child 1 My child I" For there, seething in the broth, was the dead body of her infant child,. The man, it is siaid, ordered his wife to sharpen the long oane knife belonging to the household. They did this together. Then the woman said, to her husband: "It is better that f should kill the perpetrator of this deed. You must continue to live and j rear children. Let me go." j And he let her gol In the darkness eh I! slipped away and hid outside tho I chief's house. For hours she waited her opportunity, and then when ho Trias fact asleep she crept into the hut and mutilated ihim in euoh a way that he died soon after. But his assailant managed to slip away without i'S\ng discovered. The next morning the village was in mourning for the dieath ol their chief. "Wailing was heard on every side. But fEe woman and her husband did not weep. Theirs was a dry-eyed sorrow —a gnawing at the heart strings for the childi that had met with such a horrible death. It was the fact that the woman did not wail that drew the attention of the villagers. They began to question her. At first she made no response, but the fierce exultation in her breast at a revenge that hadl justice in its accomplishment loosened her tongue: To the amazement of the crowd she declaimed as follows:—"Why do I not Cry for the death of the chief? I will tell you. The oKief has robbed me of my inly ohiid. He threw the child into a pot of boiling yams and boiled it to death. Therefore, I killed the chief. Yes, with my knife T .mutilated him in such a way that he could not live. And I am glad that I did it." The woman and her h naTmndi were handed over to the police, who conveyed them tooth to Levuka. Thence they hlave been brought to Snira and the womam is now in Sura gaol. If the statements given by the iatives are correct the caae is one which wi>l surely be brocght within the limits of the unwritten law.—Sun.