Deadly Drink

South Africa's bootleg native drink, skokiaan (subject of a recent U.S. hit tune), is usually mixed by "skokiaan queens" who know how to spike it with enough methyl alcohol to provide the jolt that thrills but does not kill. The balance is so easily upset that natives often go mad or blind from the skokiaan they buy in the shebeens of the native quarters.

The 100 natives who came upon a deserted railway tank car near Durban last week recognized the lettering "alcohol" on the car, but the prefix "methyl" meant nothing to them. Agog with the prospect of a gay weekend, they drained off 22 gallons of methyl alcohol still in the bottom of the tank and carried it off in a big black drum to be mixed into home brew. But first they decided to have a quick taste all around.

A few hours later nine of them were dead, and 55 were writhing in pain in hospitals. Next morning 27 more did not show up for work, and police began searching empty lots and alleys for their bodies. The drum of methyl alcohol was found nearly empty, its contents presumably circulating among other unsuspecting drinkers. Police cruised the native quarters with loudspeakers, warning: "Don't drink this weekend. Don't drink this weekend."

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