I wish I could say this is unbelievable.

People and their delusions...

I hope they find the humans responsible for this. But, they probably won't since they are looking for goblins.

within the context of their culture this belief is not bizarre. Something to think about.

I don't see us rising to the top of the food chain based on our common sense and rationality.

the girl had is being looked at. It could have been from a staph infection, or as Ian said, from a parasite.

We might be surprised at how many Americans believe in goblins and demons. Some of my in-laws do.

'Ring! dod! bang!
Go the hammers' clang!
Hit and turn and bore!
Whizz and puff and roar!
Thus we rive the rocks,
Force the goblin locks. -
See the shining ore!
One, two, three -
Bright as gold can be!
Four, five, six -
Shovels, mattocks, picks!
Seven, eight, nine -
Light your lamp at mine.
Ten, eleven, twelve -
Loosely hold the helve.

We're the merry miner-boys,
Make the goblins hold their noise.'

'Hush! scush! scurry!
There you go in a hurry!
Gobble! gobble! goblin!
There you go a wobblin';
Hobble, hobble, hobblin' -
Cobble! cobble! cobblin'!
Hob-bob-goblin! -
Huuuuuh!'

'There!' said the boy, as he stood still opposite them. 'There! that'll do for them. They can't bear singing, and they can't stand that song. They can't sing themselves, for they have no more voice than a crow; and they don't like other people to sing.'

Possibly an infection that eventually caused septicaemia?

It is sad what people's medical ignorance can lead to - in this case, a child's almost-certainly preventable death and an adult's suicide.

I say it again and again: if only the 'pro-lifers' would focus on increasing access to good medical advice and treatment in the developing world, rather than on their own version of goblin-hunting, how many lives might be saved!

in the sad story of a child who had to die for lack of access to those critical human necessities.

Sad that we have become accustomed, and hence immune, to these "3rd world" atrocities.

We don't even see it anymore when it happens in America. And it happens every day in America. From lack of medical attention, or abuse, or hunger. Every day.

She must have been a Level 1 commoner. Even cats can take them down...

True blights to human kind.

Julie

Only a chief can authorise witch hunters. Duh.

They got the wrong kind of witch hunters.

But, seriously...I can't even find this place on a map of Zim. It must be in the hinterland of hinterlands. Not even a village or district clinic where they could have taken the child? Did it not even occur to them?

I have lived in Africa, and, sadly, once you move out of the metropolitan areas, the ignorance level shoots up dramatically.

IanDavid, are you ex-Zim?

Zombies, vampires, werewolves and Repukes aren't enough?