Black Magic.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1922, Page 1

Black Magic.

e NAIROBI, Kenya. The native ,of Africa is a simple soul. Before his existence was compli eated by the .arrival of the European, his wants "’.ere few and Iris thoughts .were strictly regulated by his surroundings and tlie beliefs of liis father so far as they had .been translated into things material. Among the beliefs which came from the past, was the certainty that, there Is a life beyond and that the spirits of those who have passed over can guide the destinies of tho living. The African is a spirtualist.

In the midst of a Western civilisation, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and liis friends seek -to probe tlie future for the benefit of the present. With medium and seance, a touch of mystery and a deal of propaganda, they seek to revive interest in a new faitli by trying to prove an age-old hope. The African has never heard of Sir Arthur, but the latter could tell him nothing. A woman, the daughter of a European settler in the Nandi district of Kenya, had her curiosity aroused one day by signs of unusual excitement among some of the native squatters. Inquiry elicited the information that there had arrived among them one who could speak with dead friends. The woman was frankly sceptical, but AVestern scepticism is of little use against a simplicity of. the faith which has its roots in the past. .Ultimately the native said, “If you don’t believe, oome and see.” She followed into the low grass hut, and when her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and the smoke from the open fire on the floor, she discerned a circle of her father’s labourers .around one who sat in the centre o. the hut.

There was nothing unusual about his appearance, and it may be thm imagination, or a leaping flame from the lire, placed a strange light in bis eyes. In front of him, oil the earthern floor, stood an ordinary native gourd. Presently the silence was broken by low moanings and strange muttcrings and the circle of natives swayed inwards to listen. The woman was thoroughly conversant with the Nandi language, and she was amazed to hear the sounds farm into words, and the words into sentences, giving forth de tails of the worldly goods and transient things of those around her, and, most astonishing of all, the past History of those who had died, and their fathers before them.

Still unbelieving, she watched the lips of tho guardian of the gourd for signs of motion, but there was no luloroinent visible'. UHthnateiy; she bfloiight her Western (knowledge to her aid again and charged him witi being a ventriloquist. Tbe tire flared up fitfully and she saw that ho was indignant. Ho protested most earnestly ,and finally suggested that lie would leave the hut altogether. lie went outside and squat tod some distance away, where it was impossible for his voice to carry. But in tlie silence of the hut the words still came from the gourd.