1770. upon it that perfectly fatisfies him, he has recourfe to the
• — — * cawin or prieft, who affifls him with a comment and illuftrations,
and perfedtly reveals the myfterious .fuggefiions of
■ the night. It generally appears that the devil wants victuals
or money, which are always allotted him, and being placed
• on a little plate of cocoa-nut leaves, are hung upon the
branch of a tree near the river, fo that it.feems not to be the
opinion of thefe people, that in prowling the earth the devil
“ walketh through dry places.” Mr. Banks once alked,
whether they thought Satan fpent the money, or eat the victuals
; he was anfwered, that as to the money it was confi-
• dered rather as a muldl upon an offender, than a gift to him
who had enjoined it, and that therefore if it was devoted by
the dreamer, it mattered not into whofe hands it came, and
they fuppofed that it was generally the prize of fome ftranger
who wandered that way; but as to the meat they were
clearly of opinion that, although the devil did not eat the
grofs parts, -yet, by bringing his mouth near it, he fucked
•out all its favour without changing its pofition, fo that afterwards
it was as taflelefs as water.
But they have another fuperflitious opinion that is Hill
more unaccountable. They believe that women, when they
are delivered of children, are frequently at the fame time
delivered of a young crocodile, as a twin to the infant: they
believe that thefe creatures are received mofl carefully by
the midwife, and immediately carried down to the river,
and put into the water. The family in which fueh a birth is
fuppofed to have happened, conflantly put victuals into, the
river for their amphibious relation, and efpecially the twin,
who, as long as he lives, goes down to the river at Hated
feafons, to fulfil this fraternal duty, for the negledt of
which it is the univerfal opinion that he will be vifited with
ilcknefs or death. What could at firfl produce a notion fo
7 extravagant
extravagant and abfurd, it is not eafy to guefs, efpecially as 1770.
it feems to be totally unconnefted with any religious myflery, ■ l"~
and how a faff which never happened, fhould be pretended
to happen every day, by thofe who cannot be deceived into
a belief of it by appearances, nor have any apparent interefl
in the fraud, is a problem Hill more difficult to folve. Nothing
however can be more certain than the firm belief of
this flrange abfurdity among them,, for we had the concurrent
teHimony of every Indian who was queflioned about it,
in its favour. It feems to have taken its rife in the iflands of
Celebes and Boutou, where many of the inhabitants keep
crocodiles in their families; but however that be, the opinion
has fpread over all the eaftem iflands, even to Timor and
Ceram, and weflward as far as Java and Sumatra, where,
however, young crocodiles are, I believe, never kept.
Thefe crocodile twins are called Sudaras, and I fhall relate
one of the innumerable flories that were told us, in proof of
their exiflence, from, ocular demonftration.
A young female flave, who was born and bred up among
the Englifh at Bencoolen, and had learnt a little of the language,
told Mr. Banks that her father, when he was dying,
acquainted her that he had a crocodile for his fudara, and
folemnly charged her to give him meat when he fhould
be dead, telling her in what part of the river he was
to be found, and by what name he was to be called up.
That in purfuance of her father’s inflrudlions and command,
fhe went to the river, and Handing upon the bank, called
out Radja Pouti, white king, upon which a crocodile came
to her out of the water, and eat from her hand the provifions
-that fhe had brought him. When fhe was defired to defcribe
this paternal uncle, who in fo flrange a fhape had taken up
his dwelling in the water, fhe faid, that he was not like
V o l . III. Y y other