56 m a n n e r s a n d ch a racter
bra, and of Persia. To lend an implicit belief to
all these, characterizes alike the high and the low,
from the prince to the peasant. These superstitions
are generally harmless and inoffensive, but, at
other times, the delusions to which credulity exposes
these people operate in the most dangerous
and formidable manner.
Of the less dangerous forms which it takes, I
shall give as an example the frequent practice of
professed robbers in Java of throwing a quantity of
earth from a newly opened grave into the house
they intend to plunder, with an implicit belief in
its potency in inducing a deadly sleep. Having
succeeded in casting a quantity of this earth into
the house, and, if possible, into the beds of the inhabitants,
they proceed with confidence in their plunder.
It is not the robber alone that has an entire belief in
the efficacy of this practice; the conviction is equally
strong on the minds of those who are the objects
of his depredations. Quantities of the earth,
carefully preserved in cases, have been repeatedly
brought to me in the course of my official duties
found on the persons of robbers, who did not fail,
when interrogated, to be very explicit in their
accounts of its effects.
The baleful effects of superstition on the minds
of an ignorant and untutored people, is exemplified
in the laws against sorcery, found in the ancient
code of Java, which is in force at this day in
Bali< The following is an example :—“ If a person
write the name of another on a shroud, or on a
biér, or on an image of paste, or on a leaf which
he buries, suspends from a tree, places in haunted
ground, or where two roads cross each other, this
is sorcery. If a man write the name of another on
a scull, or other bone, with a mixture of blood and
charcoal, and places the same at his threshold in
water, this also is sorcery. Whatever man does so,
shall be put to death by the magistrate. I f the
matter be very clear, let the punishment of death
be extended to his parents, to his children, and to
his grandchildren* Let no one escape. Permit no
one related to one so guilty to remain on the face
of the land, and let their property of every description
be confiscated. Should the parents or children
of the sorcerer reside in a distant part of the
country, let them be found out and put to death,
and let their property, though concealed, be sought
for and confiscated.”
When the proper cord is touched, there is hardly
any thing too gross for the belief of the Indian islanders.
This degree of infatuation is best known
to us, as it affects the character of the Javanese.
It is not improbable that, were we equally well
acquainted with the rest of the tribes, we might
discover examples of credulity equally surprising.
The more agitated and varied life which the maritime
tribes pursue, and their more extensive in