go, we learned from him that the
karakul was, as we suspected, a sorcerer--a being with unlimited power
over the lives of all who offend him. He produces the death of his
victim in a very extraordinary fashion, by means of a small bone
extracted from the body of a dead man, which by his magical power he can
send into the heart of any one whom he wishes to destroy. He obtains
this bone by his enchantments. On the death of a native, he goes to the
grave the night after the funeral, and going through certain magical
performances, he afterwards lies on the top of it. At the precise
moment that a certain star appears in the heavens the dead man comes
forth, summoned by these incantations, and introduces within the skin of
the karakul, without causing him more pain or inconvenience than does
the bite of an ant, a minute bone taken from his own skeleton. The bone
thus obtained remains concealed under the enchanter's skin till the
moment that he requires to use it. He then, by magical power, orders
the mysterious bone to go out of his own body and plant itself in that
of the person he intends to destroy: it immediately enters the heart of
his unhappy victim, who quickly dies in great agony.

The enchanter, however, pretends not only to kill people, but to cure
them. When he cannot do so by his incantations, he tries rubbing and
various passes, much in the fashion of a mesmeriser. When these fail,
he burns the arms and legs of his patients, bleeds them behind the ear,
or hangs them up by an arm to the branch of a tree; if they are wounded,
he covers up their wounds with an ointment of mud. If after the
application of these remedies the patient does not get better, the
karakul declares that it is his own fault, and washes his hands of it.

"We have good reason to stand in awe of these powerful enchanters,"
observed Pullingo; at all events, that was what we understood him to
say, as far as we could comprehend his gestures and words. When I came
to know more about the natives, I found that his account was perfectly
correct. He told us a good many other curious things relating to the
superstitions of his countrymen; but I do not remember all of them. He
told us that the natives are firmly convinced no person ever dies from
natural causes; and that if not killed by his fellow-creatures, or
destroyed by the spells of magicians, he would live on for ever without
growing old or exhausting his physical powers.

"Come, we've