people ; the presiding Skid had the Tanghin fruit in readi- 
ness ; after some prayers and superstitious evolutions, he 
took out the kernel, which he placed on a smooth stone, 
and with another stone broke down a part of it into a soft 
white mass like pounded almonds. The victims were then 
brought separately forward, each was questioned as to his 
guilt, and if he denied, his arms were tied behind, and he 
was placed on his knees before the Skid, who put a portion 
of the pounded kernel on his tongue and compelled him to 
swallow it. Thus the kernel was shared among all the 
king’s personal servants. On some of the individuals the 
action began to operate in half an hour or less. The Skid 
takes particular notice how they fall, whether on the face, 
to the right or left hand, or on the back, each position 
indicating a different shade of guilt. Convulsions generally 
come on, accompanied with efforis to vomit. Those whose 
stomachs reject the dose at an early period, usually recover; 
on this occasion there were only two individuals with whom 
this was the case ; the others were thrown, in a state of 
insensibility, into a hole, and every person present at the 
ceremony was obliged to throw a stone over them, so that 
their burial was quickly completed. The king’s Skid was 
one of the first that fell. Those that recover are supposed 
to bear a charmed life ever after, and are respected as the 
peculiar favorites of the gods.” 
Fig. 1. Fruit —Natural size. 
