PROPITIATING A GODDESS WITH HUMAN HEADS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1416, 10 November 1885, Page 3

PROPITIATING A GODDESS WITH HUMAN HEADS.

Particulars of an extraordinary murder, which is reported from Anjennand, in Travancore, are given in the Western ftar. The p'ace is a small district lying near the Pandy, composed of & few villages ; and the Travancore Sirknr has appointed a manager over the district. Ihe inhabitants are chiefly a wild tribe, speaking Tamil. S"nvthree months back the manager reported to the magistrate, Cardamom Fill's, that three murders were committed, whereupon the police were ordered to proceed to the place and make enquiries. Accordingly, Mr Fernandez, the station officer, with four constables went up, and, ffith the assistance of the manager, succeeded in seizing the three murderers. These were father, son, and son-in-law. These three were the dread of the place, and the police, at a great risk to their lives, apprehended them. However, one fellow, the son-ia-law, by name Maaree, though he had handcuffs on, jumped over a precipice and escaped. After these fellows get into the jungle, it ifl easier to track a wild deer than track one of them. The two were brought to the Peermerd gaol, and their confessions were received by the thirdclass magistrate. They admit the murder point blank. Tbey say that aB there was no rain, their cultivation was a failurp, and thuoght, if nine human heads were cut off and buried in the reservoir, which irrigates their cultivation, this would propitiate their goddess, Meenachee, and all would then go right. While in this state of mind they heard from a witness that three persons from another village, and of a different caste from themselves, were encamped on the banks of the river, and engaged in fishing. On receiving this news, the three murderers, armed with choppers sharp as razors (these also have been brought up), went to the spot. The old villain, the father, went up to an old woman, whom he found quietly fishing, and, deliberately taking her by the hair of the head, with one blow severed the head from the trunk, beeing this, an old man, her husband, and a young girl, her granddaughter, ran away ; but they were soon overtaken—the old man by Maaree, who escaped, and the girl by the son—and their heads, too, were chopped off, after some backing. After th'S brutal deed was done, the murderers left the trunks where they fell and carried away Ihe heads, and offered the Bame at their Meenachee covil, after which tiny threw them into the reservoir. The murderers say that they never knew their victims before, nor had they committed the deed with any other intention hut to propitiate their goddess, and get rain to fill their reservoir. The case is being investigated by Mr Mftitby.