WITCHCRAFT IN CUBA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1116, 1 July 1913, Page 3

WITCHCRAFT IN CUBA.

A cable message recently stated that a Cuban witch-'Tctor murdered a white child m order to obtain its blood to save a uegro’s life. Troops are searching for the murderer in the province of Matansas, where other similar crimes have been perpetrated recently. A writer in the “Pall Mall Gazette” a few years ago wrote as follows on the practices of negro witch-doctors in Cuba: — The coloured population of Cuba is permeated with crime and vice,, worse than any other population in the world. The horrible crimes of savagery and violence, often executed under the cloak of some mystic religion, have at last awakened the Cubans and the American Government of the island to some idea of the field of cannibalism and witchcraft which is exploited under their very noses. The Cuban outrages may be divided into two classes : witchcraft and nanigism. For the latter there is hardly a word in English. Nanigism is the association of criminals in lodges or clubs for the purpose of attacking rival clubs or of committing offences against law and order. The only qualification for admittance into a lodge is the murder of a white man in the open street. Under the rule of Spain, nanigism attained tremendous notoriety, and the streets of the large towns were impossible after sunset unless in parties, or under escort of the police. During the American intervention, strong measures were taken by General Wood to repress the club, and for some years the nanigists were comparatively quiet. During the past six months, however, they have again showed their heads, and several murderous assaults have been committed in the streets. Nanigism is, however, the lesser of the two evils.

Brujeria, or witchcraft, is holding many of the rural districts of the island in absolute terror. In every village there are to be found one or more men or women who, by the use of superstitions, and by their own force of character, have obtained absolute domination over the rest of their race. To them come all the other blacks of the district in time of |physical or moral troubles, and in return for payment in money or in kind the witch-doctor prescribes a remedy or works a charm. Some of the incantations are amusing in their absurdity, others again are most dangerous. One of the most common is the chicken cure. This is performed by burying a pail of water in the ground, and, at a distance of five meters another hole is dug, where a chicken is burnt. The ashes are buried in the hole, and the witch traverses the intervening space to the bucket, making mystic passes and howling incantations. The pail is then raised from the earth, and the patient is bathed in the water. The theory is, of course, that the unknown properties in the chicken pass from the ashes to the water as the witch walks the five meters. Such a ceremony is harmless to the patient, and, generally, the only damage is the disappearance of a chicken from a neighbouring farm. The worst and most disastrous cure prescribed, however, is that known as the “white blood” cure. This means nothing less than the eating of’ a human heart and drinking of human blood, taken from the newly-killed body of a white person. Within the last month there have in Cuba no less than three cases of this terrible ceremony having been performed by the witches in different parts. The victim is almost always a white child, decoyed from its parents’ cottage by the offer of some sweets or of a ride. The victim is generally taken from a district removed some distance from the parent’s abode, so. as to fender discovery more difficult. Once arrived at the temple of the “ brujos,” a solemn ceremony is held, during which the child is laid on the altar, gagged and bound. Then the chief witchdoctor plunges a knife into the body, and slays the child. The blood runs into a cup and the heart is served on a plate to the patient. Whether the remains of the poor child are burned or eaten is not known, but in a recent case the evidence was very strong that at least part of the body had been consumed. The discovery of these crimes is one of immense difficulty, for the witch-doctors constantly change their residence ; it is almost impossible to get any negro to give evidence against the witch, and when the pursuit becomes too hot it is customary to sacrifice the temple and its ceremonial articles in an allconsuming fife.