African Adventure by Willard Price

Author:Willard Price [Price, Willard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The witchdoctor

Dawn was beginning to grey the walls of the tent. The flaps opened and the gun-bearer Toto looked in. ‘May I speak, bwana?’ ‘Come in, Toto. What’s on your mind?’ The little leopard - Chu - the male - he is gone.’ ‘Probably just running around in the bushes somewhere,’ Hal said.

‘No, I saw a man take him and run. A man from the village. I chased him but could not catch him.’

‘Why should they steal Chu?’

‘I think I know why, bwana. Last night I was in the village. The headman is sick unto death. The witchdoctor said only one thing could cure him. A goat must be sacrificed. It must be burned alive in front of the headman’s house. The men caught a black goat and tied it to a stake and piled much wood around it. They set fire to the wood. The witchdoctor danced around the fire. The goat cried very loudly. The fire burned its legs and then its body, and it died. The witchdoctor took some of the hot ashes and mixed them with juice squeezed from the body of a toad and made the headman drink.’

Then what?’ John Hunt asked. ‘Did the chief feel better?’

‘No, he did not. He closed his eyes. His face showed his great pain. His body became as stiff as the trunk of a tree. His son said if he died the witchdoctor must also die.’

That must have frightened the witchdoctor.’

‘He was much afraid. He told the people it was their own fault that the medicine had not worked. It was because they did -not believe. They did not have enough faith. They had not sacrificed enough. It was too easy to get a goat - they must do something more difficult. And he gave them something very hard to do.’

‘What was that?’

‘Their headman was no ordinary man, he said, he was their great chief, and a great man must have a great sacrifice. They must feed him the heart of a leopard. Then he would be well. If they did not give him the heart of a leopard within twelve hours, he would die.’

‘He was asking the impossible. Leopards cannot be found so easily. It might take them days or weeks to find a leopard.’

‘It is so,’ Toto said. ‘The witchdoctor gave them this hard thing to do and hoped they could not do it. He thought the chief would die. Then the people could not blame the witchdoctor. He could say, ‘I told you what to do and you didn’t do it. If you had brought me a leopard within twelve hours, I could have cured your chief. His death is your own fault.’ The men turned one to the other in long palaver. Though they talked much, no one could say where they might catch a leopard. And I, weary of much listening, came back to camp.’

‘I can guess what happened then,’ said John Hunt. ‘Someone must have remembered that we had two leopards here in camp.

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