s, called by the natives the _Purrah_.

As it is dangerous to enquire from the natives, and consequently difficult
to procure information on this subject, conjecture must supply the want of
oral and ocular testimony; but what I have here advanced I had from an
intelligent chief, who was a member of the society, who, I am nevertheless
convinced, preserved his integrity, in communicating the following
particulars, as I never could induce him to touch upon any part of the
mysteries, which he acknowledged to exist, but spoke of them with the
utmost reserve.

The members of this secret tribunal are under the supreme control of a
sovereign, whose superior, or _head man_, commands by his council, absolute
submission and authority from the subordinate councils and members.

To be admitted into the confederacy it is necessary to be thirty years of
age; and to be a member of the grand _purrah_, fifty years; and the oldest
member of the subordinate _purrahs_ form those of the sovereign _purrahs_.

No candidate is admitted but at the recommendation and responsibility of
members, who imprecate his death, if he betrays fear during his initiation
into the ceremonies, or the sacred mysteries of the association; from which
females are entirely excluded.

Some months elapse, in the preparation for admission, and the candidate
passes through the severest trials, in which every dreadful expedient is
employed to ascertain his firmness of mind, and courage.

The candidate is conducted to a sacred wood, where a place is appointed for
his habitation, from which he dares not absent himself; if he does, he is
immediately surrounded and struck dead. His food is supplied by men masked,
and he must observe an uniform silence.

Fires, during the night, surround these woods, to preserve them inviolate
from the unhallowed steps of curiosity, into which if indiscretion tempts
any one to enter, a miserable exit is the result.

When the trials are all gone through, _initiation_ follows; the candidate
is first sworn to secrecy, to execute implicitly the decrees of the
_purrah_ of his order, and to be devoted to the commands of the _sovereign
purrah_.

During the process of initiation, the hallowed woods resound with dreadful
howlings, shrieks, and other horrid noises, accompanied by conflagrations
and flames.

This secret and inquisitorial tribunal takes cognizance of crimes and
delinquencies, more especially witchcraft and murder; and also ope