night, with tapers burning, and, after pronouncing
mysterious words, called on their god to appear. As soon as the
prescribed forms were gone through, Nito entered with one of the
people, who, while under the demoniacal influence, foretold future
events. A few families in that island claimed to have the power of
witchcraft vested in them from generation to generation.

Being often afflicted with small-pox, the people conjectured the
disease was propagated by an evil genius; and, to frighten the demon
from their homes, images were placed on the house-tops. If one
accidentally met a funeral or saw a corpse on the road, he returned
home in haste. If the unlucky person was a woman carrying a child in
her arms, her consternation was great, for it was imagined the soul of
the deceased hovered in the air near the corpse, and endeavoured to
injure the living, particularly young children. To protect their
children from demons, parents tied charmed beads round the infants'
necks. Indeed the people lived in constant dread of evil spirits; and,
to frustrate their evil intentions, they, in addition to the
preventatives already mentioned, always kept consecrated articles
under their pillows.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Heathen Devotion in Ceylon--Superstitious Customs
among the Schismatic Greeks--Negro Belief in Fetishes
or Genii--Charms and Sacred Rings and Belts--Magic
taught by the Priests--Dead Persons metamorphosed into
Serpents--How the Gaures disposed of their Dead--Modes
of discovering whether Souls were Blessed or
Damned--Orders of Genii in Madagascar--Devil
Worship--Belief of the Caribbees--Brazilian
Superstition--Peruvian Tradition--Devil Worship among
the American Indians--Demons in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries--Satan in France--Manes, Anima,
and Umbra among the Greeks and Romans.

In Ceylon, when the heathens' prayers were not answered, they repaired
to the most gloomy parts of their sacred groves, and offered up red
cocks to the devil, where they supposed he and his imps and attendants
delighted to dwell. And when any of the people were sick, they devoted
a red cock to one of their genii. The priest, in offering the cock,
made it known that the fowl was given only on condition that the
invalid would be cured. It was believed that all the sacrifices
offered to these genii were carried by them to heaven, to be presented
to Buddha. To di