Girl Under A Spell
Amazing Witchcraft Story from Natal.
Eerie village incidents.
An amazing account of the practice of witchcraft in the uplands of Natal, incidents in which are vouched for by white as well as native eye-witnesses, is given in a message from the Daily Record’s Johannesburg correspondent.
Farmer’s story of “the flying stones”.
Village mystery baffles police.
(From our own correspondent). Johannesburg, Sunday.
Belief in witchcraft persists among the native tribes of South Africa despite the spread of civilisation, and now and again strange tales are carried down into the towns from the kraals. I spent several days, recently, away in the hills of Northern Natal, investigating a weird report of witchcraft, said to have been practised on such a scale that people in the district, white and black alike, were unable to sleep for fear of what might happen next.
Graphic accounts of mysterious incidents were given to me by Mr Jan Adendorff, a Dutch farmer, his two married sons, and his daughter-in-law, who occupy a farm-house on the slope of one of the hills. A native Zulu youth, they told me, died suddenly in the kraal, and soon it was being whispered among the natives that his death was the result of drinking Kaffir beer, into which poison has been poured. A few days later, the natives in the farm kraal said they had learned that the relatives of the youth were bent upon revenge.
The first incident occurred when two native girls were on the way to take part in tribal celebrations in a neighbouring kraal. Two unknown natives sprang upon them, and one of the girls was handled in such a way as to suggest that some kind of spell had been placed on her. She was wheeled round violently, and one of the natives placed his hands several times on her shoulder blades, muttering something as he did so. Next day, according to Mr Adendorff, that girl was engaged on some domestic tasks outside the farm-house, when stones rose out of the ground, described an arc, and dropped upon an old native woman who was working just behind the girl. Day after day similar incidents occurred, and these were witnessed by the farmer and his family, who declare emphatically that no human hand had hurled the stones into the air.
The girl was kept under observation, and on no occasion was she seen touching the stones. Indeed, the impression on the farm, and also in the kraal, was that she was quite bewildered by what was going on. “Baas!” she exclaimed to the farmer one day, “don’t blame me. I cannot help it!”
A few days later pandemonium was let loose in the kraal. Five native grass huts were suddenly burned to the ground, in broad daylight, when all the natives were at work in the fields. Then, at night, stones, gravel, and water poured into the huts through the roofs. No trace of any intruder was found, although search was at once instituted. The whole attack, said Mr Adendorff, appeared to be directed against the old native woman whose head and legs were badly injured by “the flying stones.” Never once was the native girl struck, and Dutch and natives alike are convinced that the girl had been bewitched, since it was onlly when she was in the vicinity that anything happened.
In the end, said the farmer, the native girl appeared to become mentally unbalanced, and her friends asked to be allowed to remove her to her home kraal. Immediately the girl was taken away the trouble ceased.
Mr Adendorff kept a diary of each day’s incidents, and, when I suggested that some practical jokers might have been at work, he led me out of the farmhouse and, pointing to a two-inch thick slab of stone, remarked – “One day I was standing at this very spot. The stone you see there was lying no more than 18 inches from my right foot. Suddenly, it seemed to spring out of the ground. It hurtled through the branches of that peach tree and dropped on the head of the old woman. After that the old woman took to wearing for protection a kind of helmet made out of a piece of corrugated iron.”
When I visited the kraal the old woman showed me the ugly wound on her head, and other bruises on her legs. She scuttled into the hut when I approached, but was persuaded to come out again. I had, however, to satisfy her that my camera was not a new kind of gun before she would allow the headman of the kraal to pose for me in the ruins of one of the devastated huts.
Mr Adendorff has been on the farm since 1904. He is over 60 years of age and a prominent office-bearer in the Dutch Reformed Church. “There is not the slightest doubt in my mind,” he said, “that witchcraft was being practised here.”
The police, after searching investigations all over the farm and in the kraal, had to return to town admitting that they had been unable to solve the mystery of what the natives still call “the flying stones.”
Daily Record, 17th May 1926.
Witchcraft on African Farm.
Extraordinary tales of native witchcraft are told by a farmer named Adendorff, residing near Newcastle (Natal), and vouched as authentic by members of his family. A Zulu boy died on the farm and the natives round about spread the rumour that his death had been caused by a draught of poisoned beer. Soon after, two native girls, also employed on the farm, were met by a Zulu, said to be a witch doctor, who seized one, wheeled her round and pressed both hands several times on her shoulders. The next evening the girls, accompanied by an aged native woman, were proceeding to a celebration in the neighbouring kraal when suddenly large stones rose into the air in front of them and rained down on the old woman who, shrieking with terror, rushed back to her kraal.
This was followed by other mysterious incidents in the neighbourhood. Fires, arising from no apparent cause, razed huts to the ground, blankets were torn from natives while they were asleep, and blows were rained by unseen hands on their bodies, water was poured on them from the roofs, and showers of huge stones broke dishes.
Mr Adendorff himself saw stones rise into the air and fall on the native woman, and his sons were subjected to similar showers. The old woman took to wearing a head covering of corrugated iron, and the Adendorffs say that the noise of the stones falling on the iron could be heard for a considerable distance. They are positive that no human hand threw the stones which dropped perpendicularly. The native girl who was supposed to have been bewitched ultimately went mad and was taken away by her friends. After that the phenomena ceased.
Mr Adendorff, who is a prominent churchman and has been farming in the district for over twenty years, is convinced that witchcraft has been practised on his farm.
Belfast Telegraph, 28th May 1926.
In submitting this account I also attach extracts from the “Star,” a leading Johannesburg newspaper. Reading these in conjunction with my own experience, readers will find themselves faced by a very perplexing problem. The first cutting reads:
“Residents of the Northern Natal town of Newcastle have been mystified by reports from the farm Sterkstroom, owned by Mr Jan Adendorff, fifteen miles from the town. The story, which is vouched for by the owner of the farm, is that large stones were seen to rise mysteriously from the earth, fly in the air, and drop in various directions. Four native huts on the property were also completely gutted by fire, one after the other, in the presence of onlookers, but no one could form the least idea as to how the fires originated, as not a single human being was to be seen in the vicinity of the burning huts.
“According to some residing on the farm, a native female employed there must be bewitched. Wherever she walks stones rise around her and fall on to her clothes… Mr Adendorff has given graphic details of the mysterious occurrences to friends in Newcastle. ‘The stones got up and flew about,’ he said to one interested listener. ‘I cannot account for it; it must be witchcraft.’ Mr Adendorff is over sixty years of age and is well known throughout the district.
“Sergeant Moore, of the Newcastle Police, was sent to the farm following the report of the burning of the huts. He was, however, unable to solve the mystery of the conflagration. The isolated position of the farm has not prevented the spread of sensational reports of what is said to have occurred there. Throughout the district there are many people who attribute the whole affair to witchcraft, but there are quite as many who are suspicious that some person has been hoaxing the farmer and his family.”
The second report is too long for reproduction in full, but the folllowing extracts – written by a member of the “Star” staff who visited the district specially and interviewed all the people concerned – will serve to corroborate and amplify my own statements:
“The old native woman against whom the attack appeared to have been specially directed has got such a fright – in addition she has wounds on the head and legs – that she bolted into her hut and secured the door immediately she saw a little group of us approach the kraal. It was only with difficulty that she was persuaded to come out again. Satisfied, however, that she was in no danger, she crawled out into the sunshine and, with many expressive gestures, told how when washing clothes in a pool the stones suddenly sprang out of the bank and rained upon her. During several nights stones, clouds of dust, and sometimes water poured in through the roof of the hut. This continued for some time, but although search was immediately made, no human being was found outside.
“The headman, who had all this time been anxious to have his say, intervened to draw attention to the nasty bruises on his ankles, caused, he said, by ‘the flying stones.’ He also displayed a bowl with a large hole in the centre. One night, he said, when he was supping porridge, a big stone dropped from the roof. He examined the roof at once and found to his surprise that there was no hole in it through which the stone could have been dropped.
“Mr Adendorff has been twenty years at Sterkstroom. He is well known throughout the district, and has for many years been an elder in the Dutch Reformed Church in Newcastle. He is over sixty years of age, and he and his family are firmly convinced that witchcraft was practised.”
Apart from the stone-throwing, mysterious fires, apparently breaking out spontaneously, burned down several of the huts in the kraal – each fire starting inside! “Mr Addendorff says that water had no effect upon the flames, and so the amateur fire-fighters beat the blazing huts with sticks. This appeared to extinguish the fire, but when they moved on to deal with the outbreak in another hut flames again sprang up. This was the experience at the five huts involved, and despite every effort all were burned to the ground.
Another remarkable incident reported by Mr Adendorff occurred some hours after the fire. A girl (who was believed to have been bewitched) was standing in the ruins of one of the huts when all around her the earth seemed to crack and a cloud of dust rose into the air and fell upon her. “Mr Adendorff, who had kept a close watch upon the girl, says he then saw a big flat stone – two inches thick and six inches square – spring out of the ground, crash through the branches of a peach-tree, and fall upon the head of the old native woman who was also in the kraal, some distance away. By this time, however, the old woman had taken to wearing a ‘helmet’ of corrugated iron, and she was unhurt, although slightly stunned by the force with which the stone rattled upon the iron. The old woman had received a wound on her head a few days earlier, and Mr Adendorff’s daughter-in-law said that when she rushed out with a bandage blood was running down between the old woman’s shoulders.
“What makes the whole affair all the more remarkable is that Mr Adendorff, his married sons, Albert and Frederick, and his daughter-in-law all claim to have seen the ‘flying stones.’ Mr Adendorff, indeed, at the end of each day described in his diary that day’s incidents. He early became suspicious that a young native girl – she is believed to be about fifteen years of age – was in some way involved in the mystery, and he kept her under observation every day. On no occasion did Mr Adendorff see the girl touch any of the stones. ‘I was soon satisfied,’ he said, ‘that the girl was not playing any tricks upon us. All the same, I asked her if she could explain what was happening, and she immediately burst into tears and cried: ‘Baas, I cannot help it.’ She appeared to be going out of her mind.’
“Visitors to the farm are shown stones which the Adendorff family and their natives saw hurtling through the air, water-carrying vessels which were shattered by stones, the charred ruins of the five huts, and the wounds sustained by the natives. To the suggestion that a stone-thrower might have been hiding there is the emphatic statement by Mr Adendorff that on several occasions he saw stones lying at his feet jump into the air.”
A Johannesburg “Star” reporter later visited the kraal with a number of prominent residents of Newcastle, including the Mayor, hoping to see and investigate further manifestations, but they were informed by a witch-doctor that nothing further would happen as he (the wizard) had driven away the evil spirit which had caused all the mischief. The journalist continues:
“While at the kraal I had a conversation with Mr W. Goodwin, Jnr., the son of the mayor of Newcastle. Mr Goodwin has a farm in the vicinity of Sterkstroom, and he told me that when he heard the first rumors of the ‘flying stones, ‘ he ridiculed the idea. Next day, however, he visited the kraal, and he assures me that he was greatly surprised when a shower of stones fell as from the sky. Mr Goodwin related his experiences to his father, and the Mayor had to confess that the whole affair baffled him. Mr J.N. Cook, a Newcastle attorney, who was among the visitors, remarked that the evidence pointed to witchcraft or hypnotism having been practised at Sterkstroom Farm and also at the kraal. Mr Seager, the station foreman at Ingogo, told me that he had visited the kraal while the stone-throwing incidents were in progress and that he had himself seen the stones hurtling through the air.”
Voice (Hobart), 21st February 1942.