Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1900 — DYING FROM WITCHCRAFT. [ARTICLE]

DYING FROM WITCHCRAFT.

Indian 1 dbe Passing: Away Because of a I tculiar Hallucination. Indians arriving at Vancouver from the north declare that the head and almost the last of the Naasdick tribe of Indians of Alert Bay has destroyed himself, the whole clan, in the Indian’s own words, being “witched” by an evil spirit in the body of a boy named Ahabata. A year ago, when Naasdick, the head of the clan, lay dying of consumption, he called a brave named Descultah to him and told him the boy Ahahata was bewitching the tribe; that his spell had killed him and he would destroy them all. Naasdick made Descultah promise to kill the boy. Naasdick died and Descultah disappeared with the boy for several days. On his return he was arrested for murder. At his trial Descultah confessed that he killed the boy by throwing him into the river. The court ordered the trial to go on, however, and the evidence showed -that -Deseulta h bad not. killed Ahahata, but simply took him into another part of the country, but had pleaded guilty as he would sooner hang than face the anger of his tribe. Descultah was acquitted.

On the way home Descultah’s wife, having leariJed that the boy was still alive, said she was bewitched and hanged herself to a beam in the ship in the presence of her husband. When Descultah reached his rancheria in Alert Bay, after six months’ absence, he found his clan dying off by small? pox and consumption. He told them that he had destroyed the dead Naasdick; that the witch boy w - as alive and they were eilrsed to death. He had desired the white men to hang him, but since they would not do so he would hang himself. Before the remnant of his decimated tribe Descultah then committed the “happy dispatch.”—San Francisco Chronicle.