Bechuanaland Mystery

Two British airmen, training in Rhodesia, failed to return from a cross-country flight over the trackless wastes of Bechuanaland. Last week, in the thatched courthouse at Francistown, three ocher-skinned Bushmen named Twaitwai, Tammai and Kiree told what happened to the flyers.

On Oct. 5, the day after the airmen vanished, the Bushmen were giraffe-hunting in the closed season (September to February). After they had killed a giraffe, they met two white men, camped with them, gave them some of the giraffe meat. When the strangers slept, the Bushmen held an indaba (discussion). Would not the white men disclose the killing of the giraffe? "Kill them," advised Twaitwai. Tammai and Kiree did. All night, they burned the bodies. Next morning, they took away the white men's bones and clothes as muti (magic medicine) for witchcraft. A torn khaki tunic, dropped by the wayside, led police to Twaitwai, Tammai and Kiree.

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