The first thing that struck me that day, as we entered the abandoned premises' of Robinson Married Quarters (mining community in South Africa), was the number of newly-dead ducklings. Pathetic little bundles of yellow fluff dotted all over the back yard. I was at once, dismayed to see this dismal sight.
My friend from next door was taking me to see where horrifying and bizarre events had occurred over the past few weeks. This took place in early '71.
Apparently, this all started happening when the man of the house lost a leg in a mine accident, and had to be boarded from his job. Shortly after this man returned from hospital, his daughter started waking up in the middle of the night with something sitting astride her, pinning her to the bed. This happened quite frequently without her seeing any visible evidence. Eventually, one night she awoke to find a 'gorilla with red eyes' sitting so heavily on her chest, that she was being pressed into the mattress. She cried out for help, but when her step-mother got there, the creature had disappeared. No one in the house believed her.
A few days later, the man's Mother came for morning tea. While lifting the hot tea to sip, the 'gorilla' appeared, jumping right onto the old ladies lap, causing her to spill the tea over herself and the 'gorilla'. At this, the creature shrieked (in pain?) and leaped off, vanishing once more. This time, several family members witnessed the 'gorilla'.
The teenage daughter had a scary incident one day when she opened the pantry door, a large rinkals (type of snake found in South Africa) slithered out. She ran, screaming for help.
The step-mother, for some ungodly reason, had been to visit a sangoma (witch-doctor) in Alberton, to have a curse put on her husband and his family. We deduced that the bizarre occurrences were due to a curse or hex put upon the family, per instruction (and payment) of this woman.
Well, that curse certainly seemed to have worked! One night, the entire family disappeared, leaving the house still furnished, AND open.
As my friend and I entered the back door, the atmosphere was thick and heavy with a sense of evil. We had a quick look around, and then got out super-fast. We never touched a thing in that house; we were too scared that the evil would 'rub off' on us.
That was the first time that I had ever heard of such events, and was very curious. But, unquestionably not inquisitive enough to ever return.
