on his deathbed declared to his friends that Lopez had killed him.
Lopez was therefore taken into custody, and put in irons. The crown
officers investigated the case with great care, and found that the
body of Gomez was all bruised and torn in various places. Lopez, upon
this, was taken to Guatemala, and there hanged, the evidence against
him, in the estimation of the judges and people, being conclusive that
he had fatally injured Gomez while the former was in the shape of a
tiger, and the latter in the likeness of a lion."

The inhabitants of Bisnagar, Deccan, and elsewhere believed that the
moment a priest marked any one on the forehead with vermilion, the
devil had no power over the person thus distinguished. At Samorin
there was a statue to which children were sacrificed. It was of brass,
and, when heated by a furnace underneath it, the children were thrown
into its mouth and consumed. Flowers were scattered upon the altars
during the sacrifices, and herbs, steeped in the blood of a cock,
perfumed the idol. The cock's throat was cut with a silver knife
dipped in the blood of a hen. At the conclusion of the barbarous
ceremony, the priest walked backwards from the altar to the middle of
the chapel, where he threw a handful of corn over his head.

The Ganges, as is well known, was, and still is, worshipped by a large
number of people. Vast numbers of pilgrims continually visit this
great river. Formerly, if not now, they bathed in it in a peculiar
fashion, holding short straws in their hands while they were
performing their ablutions. Gold and silver were often thrown into the
stream, in testimony of admiration.

At Quailacara a remarkable ceremony took place once every twelve
years. On the morning of the important day, the rajah, who was both
high priest and sovereign, offered himself a sacrifice to the gods. He
first delivered an oration, and then with a sharp instrument cut off
his nose, lips, and ears, and concluded the tragical event by cutting
his throat. Similar ceremonies were performed in the same district by
scores of deluded devotees, who bent their steps to the most
celebrated temples, where they cut off their flesh, piece by piece,
and then stabbed themselves to death. Their bodies were burned, and
the ashes sold by the priests at high sums, as preservatives against
disease. When the people came to bathe in the Ganges in the month of
May, they erected piles of cows' dung, on which were placed baskets of