ain plants, and smears one half of it with black
pigment. Then he makes a small hole in the ground and inserts the
blackened end of the stone in the hole. Next he prays to the ancestors
that nothing may go well with the country. If this malevolent rite
should be followed by the desired effect, the sorcerer soon sees
messengers arriving laden with presents, who entreat him to stay the
famine. If his cupidity is satisfied, he rubs the stone again, inserts
it upside down in the ground, and prays to his ancestors to restore
plenty to the land.[536]

[Sidenote: Stones to drive people mad.]

Again, certain rough unhewn stones, which are kept in the sacred places,
are thought to possess the power of driving people mad. To effect this
purpose the sorcerer has only to strike one of them with the branches of
a certain tree and to pray to the ancestral spirits that they would
deprive so-and-so of his senses.[537]

[Sidenote: Stones to blight coco-nut palms. Stones to make bread-fruit
trees bear fruit.]

Again, there is a stone which they use in cursing a plantation of
coco-nut palms. The stone resembles a blighted coco-nut, and no doubt it
is this resemblance which is supposed to endow it with the magical power
to blight coco-nut trees. In order to effect his malicious purpose the
sorcerer rubs the stone in the cemetery with certain leaves and then
deposits it in a hole at the foot of a coco-nut tree, covers it up, and
prays that all the trees of the plantation may be barren. This ceremony
combines the elements of magic and religion. The prayer, which is no
doubt addressed to the spirits of the dead, though this is not expressly
affirmed, is purely religious; but the employment of a stone resembling
a blighted coco-nut for the purpose of blighting the coco-nut palms is a
simple piece of homoeopathic or imitative magic, in which, as usual, the
desired effect is supposed to be produced by an imitation of it.
Similarly, in order to make a bread-fruit tree bear fruit they employ
two stones, one of which resembles the unripe and the other the ripe
fruit. These are kept, as usual, in a cemetery; and when the trees begin
to put forth fruit, the small stone resembling the unripe fruit is
buried at the foot of one of the trees with the customary prayers and
ceremonies; and when the fruits are more mature the small stone is
replaced by the larger stone which resembles the ripe fruit. Then, when
the fruits on the tree are quite ripe, the