Extraordinary Appeal Case.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2856, 24 March 1888, Page 3

Extraordinary Appeal Case.

t An extraordinary appeal case has just been heard in Madras, which clearly evidences the active character of existing superstitions. It seems that one of the accused in the original case gave birth in December last to a male child, having four eyes, the face of a monkey, and crooked arms and legs, while itjjunted like a pig immediately aftefits birth. The midwife placed the child under a trough and sat upon it, both she and the mother raising cries of alarm. The male prisoner then came and took the child into a field and killed it by striking it on the head with a club. Their explanation was that the child was an evil snL which they were justified by the Bratoin of the country in killing, in order to prevent it from doing evil. The judge acquitted them on the ground of a mistako of fact. The decision was necessarily upset on appeal. The accused believed that unless the child had been killed it would have grown to an immense size and devastated the country, and that they were therefore committing a meritorious action in obviating so gravo a public calamity.