The Witch Of Hex River Poem by Gert Strydom

According to legend
a beautiful girl
Eliza Meiring stayed

on the farm Buffelskraal
at the foot
of the mountains

and so many suitors
were interested in her
that she would only
be the girlfriend of the man
that brought her a red disa flower.

These ground orchids
only grow on the highest peaks
and it was extremely difficult
to get the flower.

The few guys that tried
quickly got discouraged
but Frans whom she really loved

climbed up Groothoek ravine
against a wet moss covered cliff
and there fell to his death.

Eliza was deranged
when she heard the news
and was kept by her parents
in the loft of their house
where she notched Eliza Meiring 1868
onto the wooden windowsill

and one night
she got the top window open,
went down to the ground,
wearing her long white night gown

and climbed the foot hills
and sat down crying on a rock
which suddenly crumbled beneath her
and she also fell to her death.

It is said
that when the first winter snow
falls on that mountains
and the moon rises
glittering on them

her spirit dwells
on the mountain peaks
and that she still mourns
the death of her lover.