SUPERSTITION AND MAGIC IN CAMBODIA. 527 



carry it away. In some places the bonzes, wlio were certainly not 

 ignorant concerning the stakes, directed the workmen, and had the 

 roads made straight to their pagodas. The Chinese and Malays do 

 not escape the road-making fever, and while I was French resident 

 at I^ampot I heard some very curious stories of men who were 

 mysteriously struck down for ridiculing or opposing it. At one place 

 a Malay questioned the utility of the work. " What do we want of 

 roads?" he said. "We have always got along without them; this 

 is a French idea." His fellows warned him to look out, or harm 

 might come to him. He went home, and in a little while cries were 

 heard coming from his house. His neighbors went in and found him 

 lying on his side, with his arms stretched out, crying: " Untie me; 

 take a knife and cut the ropes from my arms; cut them and let me 

 work on the road! I have been bound because I spoke ill of the 

 genius." Without a smile, one of the neighbors took a knife and 

 made a gesture of cutting the invisible cords that bound the arms 

 of the unhappy man. He rose, shook his arms to get the stiffness 

 out of them, and went to work on the road. E'obody doubted that 

 he had been bound by a road genius. When I ordered a road built 

 between Kompong Bay and Mac Prang, the Malay under-governor, 

 who was hostile to the project, did nothing toward carrying my 

 orders into effect, till one night a genius appeared to him and ordered 

 him to proceed with the work, because Cambodia must have as broad 

 and fine roads as Paris. He set his gangs to work the next morning. 



The witches are not willing to confess to the possession of mys- 

 terious powers, because they are afraid of the courts and of popular 

 prejudice; but they may be known by their strange appearance, 

 their bright, lively, black eyes, and restless demeanor. " A witch," 

 I was told, " is always looking anxiously around, because she always 

 has her devil with her." Some witches acquire their standing by 

 imitation, but more by inheritance. The daughter of a sorceress, 

 even if she does not practice her craft, and is not acquainted with its 

 secrets and magical formulas, is supposed to be possessed of a fatal 

 power of which she can not be deprived. She casts the evil eye and 

 terror about her, and her neighbors fear and despise her. 



A woman sixty-two years old, who had worn irons on her feet by 

 order of her governor for more than a year, was sent to me, charged 

 with sorcery and the evil eye, although no mischief could be laid 

 up against her. To justify his course the governor said he appre- 

 hended that the people would treat her cruelly; but he was really 

 as superstitious as they, and was afraid of her power. The governor 

 of another province refused to take her as a servant when she asked 

 him to, because he was afraid for his family. The interpreter of 

 the residence, a Roman Catholic of Khmero-Portuguese origin, re- 



