Boy, this has the smell, no pun intended, of an Urban Legend. But, I have seen quite a few bob-tailed hyenas on the nature shows lately.
Then again, maybe the Democrats were burning that stuff when Gore was soliciting campaign contributions.
Man, we could have a lot of fun with this one.
South African Raiders
South African house raiders turn to witchcraft
By Inigo Gilmore in Durban
A KNOCKOUT drug produced from burning dried hyenas' tails is the latest weapon employed by criminal gangs in Durban where a recent wave of unusual housebreakings has struck fear into the coastal city's wealthy white suburbs.
The criminals use a concoction produced from the animals' tails to smoke out their victims' houses before ransacking them as the occupants lie unconscious. The gangs are obtaining the tails from unscrupulous witchdoctors who demand high prices for the dried out hyena body parts.
Known in Zulu as udonsi lwempisi, the hyenas' tails, and sometimes their noses, are ground into a pulp and mixed with herbs by the witchdoctors. The criminals then roll the mixture into paper tubes or place it in a tin. An entire tail retails at about £300 but, according to traditional healers, £5-worth is sufficient to knock out a family of four in a medium-sized household for up to 12 hours.
The robbers light the tube and waft the smoke into the house through open windows, the gaps under doors or through cracks in the walls. The subsequent thefts have become known in Durban as "hyena heists".
Anthony Donkin, an insurance assessor who lives in the upmarket Kloof suburb of Durban with his wife Deborah and three-year-old son Kyle, was recently hit twice in a week, sleeping through both raids. On the second occasion, four other houses in his road were also robbed but none of the victims can recall seeing or hearing anything.
Mr Donkin said: "The first time they came into our bedroom and took my wife's jewellery. On the second occasion they had a party, eating and drinking from our fridge, before completely cleaning us out, piling our belongings into my wife's car and driving off.
"My son wakes up at anything and the dogs bark if they hear anyone. But when I went down the next morning after the second robbery the dogs were still asleep, dozing on the sitting-room floor. I had to step over them and then I saw that the front door was open and everything had gone."
Mr Donkin said that at the time he was convinced they were drugged. Then he was told by someone in the local insurance industry that gangs were using hyenas' tails in robberies. He learned of one incident where a man woke up on his bedroom floor to find his bed and all his bedroom furniture missing and the house completely stripped.
Mr Donkin said: "At first I thought it was hogwash, a load of mumbo-jumbo, but now I am convinced. We've now heard of many, many incidents where people did not hear a thing when they were robbed and then, like us, woke up the next day with thumping hangovers even though they had not touched a drop of alcohol. The police around here admit we were drugged but they don't want to go public. They are not interested unless a murder has taken place."
The anaesthetic powers of the animals' body parts, the so-called "secret of the hyena", is a taboo subject among many traditional healers and is shunned by those who follow a strict code of ethics. According to one traditional healer, the hyenas' tail was used during the 19th-century Zulu Wars to anaesthetise warriors injured during battles with the British. As demand for the hyena tails grows, there is a booming illegal trade with parts being smuggled over the border from neighbouring Botswana inside the panelling of car doors.
Sazi Mhlongo, head of the KwaZulu/Natal Traditional Healers' Council, which has more than 30,000 members, said: "We've known about the power of the hyena for many hundreds of years." Only hyena parts have this knockout effect, he said, but even if the police were to take a tail and burn it in a laboratory they would not have scientific proof. He said the potion has to be specially prepared to be effective.
Mr Mhlongo said: "We are offended by the way some of these so-called witchdoctors are helping criminals. But it is not easy to stop them as we often only hear about their collaboration after the crime has taken place. They are operating in secret because if the community finds out, they will kill them."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000
Post edited by Staff to correct formatting problems only.
[This message has been edited by Rich Lucibella (edited July 30, 2000).]
Then again, maybe the Democrats were burning that stuff when Gore was soliciting campaign contributions.
Man, we could have a lot of fun with this one.
South African Raiders
South African house raiders turn to witchcraft
By Inigo Gilmore in Durban
A KNOCKOUT drug produced from burning dried hyenas' tails is the latest weapon employed by criminal gangs in Durban where a recent wave of unusual housebreakings has struck fear into the coastal city's wealthy white suburbs.
The criminals use a concoction produced from the animals' tails to smoke out their victims' houses before ransacking them as the occupants lie unconscious. The gangs are obtaining the tails from unscrupulous witchdoctors who demand high prices for the dried out hyena body parts.
Known in Zulu as udonsi lwempisi, the hyenas' tails, and sometimes their noses, are ground into a pulp and mixed with herbs by the witchdoctors. The criminals then roll the mixture into paper tubes or place it in a tin. An entire tail retails at about £300 but, according to traditional healers, £5-worth is sufficient to knock out a family of four in a medium-sized household for up to 12 hours.
The robbers light the tube and waft the smoke into the house through open windows, the gaps under doors or through cracks in the walls. The subsequent thefts have become known in Durban as "hyena heists".
Anthony Donkin, an insurance assessor who lives in the upmarket Kloof suburb of Durban with his wife Deborah and three-year-old son Kyle, was recently hit twice in a week, sleeping through both raids. On the second occasion, four other houses in his road were also robbed but none of the victims can recall seeing or hearing anything.
Mr Donkin said: "The first time they came into our bedroom and took my wife's jewellery. On the second occasion they had a party, eating and drinking from our fridge, before completely cleaning us out, piling our belongings into my wife's car and driving off.
"My son wakes up at anything and the dogs bark if they hear anyone. But when I went down the next morning after the second robbery the dogs were still asleep, dozing on the sitting-room floor. I had to step over them and then I saw that the front door was open and everything had gone."
Mr Donkin said that at the time he was convinced they were drugged. Then he was told by someone in the local insurance industry that gangs were using hyenas' tails in robberies. He learned of one incident where a man woke up on his bedroom floor to find his bed and all his bedroom furniture missing and the house completely stripped.
Mr Donkin said: "At first I thought it was hogwash, a load of mumbo-jumbo, but now I am convinced. We've now heard of many, many incidents where people did not hear a thing when they were robbed and then, like us, woke up the next day with thumping hangovers even though they had not touched a drop of alcohol. The police around here admit we were drugged but they don't want to go public. They are not interested unless a murder has taken place."
The anaesthetic powers of the animals' body parts, the so-called "secret of the hyena", is a taboo subject among many traditional healers and is shunned by those who follow a strict code of ethics. According to one traditional healer, the hyenas' tail was used during the 19th-century Zulu Wars to anaesthetise warriors injured during battles with the British. As demand for the hyena tails grows, there is a booming illegal trade with parts being smuggled over the border from neighbouring Botswana inside the panelling of car doors.
Sazi Mhlongo, head of the KwaZulu/Natal Traditional Healers' Council, which has more than 30,000 members, said: "We've known about the power of the hyena for many hundreds of years." Only hyena parts have this knockout effect, he said, but even if the police were to take a tail and burn it in a laboratory they would not have scientific proof. He said the potion has to be specially prepared to be effective.
Mr Mhlongo said: "We are offended by the way some of these so-called witchdoctors are helping criminals. But it is not easy to stop them as we often only hear about their collaboration after the crime has taken place. They are operating in secret because if the community finds out, they will kill them."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000
Post edited by Staff to correct formatting problems only.
[This message has been edited by Rich Lucibella (edited July 30, 2000).]
