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,...
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