BREAKING NEWS!

We interrupt this blog for a news story that has just broke. Please be advised that the following story contains items which might be disturbing to some. It is rated PG-13. Parental discretion is advised.

RUMOUR OF MAN TRANSFORMED INTO SNAKE GRIPS BEIRA

Maputo, 13 Jul {AIM} - Even in Mozambique's second largest city, Beira, superstition and rumour still have such a grasp that on Thursday large numbers of people gathered outside a police station in the hope of seeing a man who had allegedly been turned into a snake.

The story that spread through Beira was that the unfortunate man had been bewitched. His legs were still human, but from the waist up he was a large snake. ccording to the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique", one colourful version of the story was that a woman went to a local witch-doctor to buy a potion that would stop her husband having sex with other women. She put the potion in her husband's bath, from which he emerged with his upper body transformed into that of a snake. is horrified relatives were then alleged to have seized the wife, and the witch-doctor, and dragged them off to a police station.

A completely different story claimed that a local street vendor transformed himself into a snake, after he was beaten up by municipal policemen who had accused him of selling goods in an improper place.

But it was the story of the woman bewitching her husband that grabbed the imagination of Beira citizens. A large crowd gathered in Chipangara, the neighbourhood where the transformation from man to reptile was supposed to have happened. But at the Chipangara neighbourhood offices, municipal officials assured the crowd that there was no snake on the premises, let alone a man-snake.

So the rumour changed direction. The man-snake was somewhere near the Beira city hall, and his wife was under detention in the first precinct police station. Hundreds of people gathered outside the police station, anxious to catch a glimpse of the man-snake. Photos published by "Diario de Mocambique" make it clear that this really was rather a large crowd. Some people had even paid for transport from distant neighbourhoods in the hope of seeing this unnatural marvel.

The commander of the police station, Simao Isaias, was at a university class when the crowd showed up. He received an urgent phone call from one of his subordinates warning him that the police station was being "invaded" by people who were demanding to see the man-snake and the woman who had bewitched him. The police had to clear the crowd away from the station, and sought reinforcements, including a tanker truck from the Beira fire brigade, ready to hose down the crowd, should it try to storm the police station.

The police assured the crowd that they were wasting their time. There was no man-snake, and the whole story was just a senseless rumour. But a section of the crowd refused to disperse, and shouted "No smoke without fire ! The police are hiding something !"

"Diario de Mocambique" heard that one man was arrested for spreading the rumour, but the police refused to confirm this.
{AIM}

PS: The author of this blog is in no way responsible for the effects this story might have on the readers nightrest. Any claims due to traumatic thoughts and dreams are to be directed towards the writer of above article Clark Can't, also known as Snakeman.