"
Mary went back to Ekenge. Here she found that Chief Edem was very sick. He
had some very bad boils on his back. Mary put medicine on the boils. Every
day she came to his house and took care of him. One day when she came in
she saw feathers and eggs lying around the room. This was witch doctor
"medicine." On the Chief's neck and around his arms and legs were witch
charms.
"Oh, Chief Edem," said Mary, "how could you do this? Surely you know that
doing witchcraft is a sin against God. I do not see how you could go back
to it after you had learned to know about Jesus."
"Ma, you don't know all about these things. Someone is the cause of this
sickness. You don't know all the badness of the black man's heart. Look,
here are the proofs that someone is working witchcraft against me. The only
one who can fight that is the witch doctor. He is the only one who can
make me well. See, here are the things that were taken from my back."
Chief Edem pointed to a collection of shot, egg shells, seed and other
things which the witch doctor said had come from his back. He believed the
witch doctor. He believed that someone using witchcraft had sent them into
his back.
Mary knew what would happen. Everybody whom the chief thought might have
done the witchcraft would have to take poison. The people thought that if
the person who took the poison died, he was guilty, but if he was not
guilty he would live.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73