Witch Doctor

New Caledonian

Story

That Was the End of a Witch Doctor

A STORY that could be given adequate justice only by the most “popular” of the metro politan Sunday newspapers emerged from a court case in Noumea in mid-June.

In a village on the NW of the island of New Caledonia lived a witch-doctor named Dole Tein. At the end of 1954 he disappeared sud denly from his usual haunts and although this at first did not raise any comment, as months went on the authorities began to entertain suspicions.

The gendarmerie thereupon put Dole’s village on the grill and dis covered that the sorcerer was by no means popular in his home town.

Everyone, in fact, was agreed that it would be a very good thing if the sorcerer were to disappear but no one was anxious to assist personally in the matter. Finally a young man, named Yova, was made to under stand that it was up to him to remove Dole as he alone had the means at his command —to wit, one .22 rifle.

The women of the tribe, par ticularly, were insistent that the sorcerer be withdrawn from circula tion. When called upon to con sult him about their various miseries, Dole gave them herbal drinks but insisted on “having his way with them” whether (accord ing to our correspondent, they ware 14 or 74.

Yova and his rifle one day found the witch-doctor alone in a planta tion—and that was the end of the

witch-doctor. Yova called on a friend to help hide the body; they attached a stone to its feet and threw it in a deep hole in the river.

In June, Yova and his friend appeared before a European judge in Noumea to answer for their crime. However, Civilisation tempered justice with mercy and although found guilty, Yova got only five years in gaol; his friend got a suspended sentence of 12 months.