528 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fused to take her home at my request, because of lier lively eyes 

 and fear for his wife. A niece, who probably knew more about the 

 unreality of her powers than the governor and the others, at last 

 agreed to take care of her. She told me that her ancestors were 

 reputed to be sorcerers, but she knew nothing about the art, and 

 had never practiced it. 



There are other sorcerers who pretend to be acquainted with the 

 demoniac science, and make a trade of it. They sell love philters 

 and magic formulas that will compel the passion; potions that will 

 produce abortions; poisons and more or less effective remedies; and 

 fetich strings that will keep devils and ghosts away. All Cam- 

 bodians, even the king, believe in them. We need not ridicule 

 ISTorodom and his countrymen for this, for I have found instances of 

 like weakness among Frenchmen. 



Amulets play a prominent part in Kmer life. Besides the cords 

 that keep away evil spirits, they have small cylinders of lead or tin 

 with a cotton or hempen cord running around them, to preserve them 

 against certain diseases; and usually they contain an inscription in 

 Pali, and a mysterious invocation. Soldiers wear pieces of white 

 cotton cloth marked with arabesques and letters and figures, for pro- 

 tection against death and serious wounds. A lover who repeats nine 

 times the words Setthi thea jac juc tas ae pac l^ai sang khac annamac 

 into a pocket handkerchief he intends to give a young woman feels 

 certain tliat he will win her love. Another way of securing the love 

 of a woman, however indifferent she may be, is to write her name 

 on a betel leaf and pronounce upon it four times, before taking it 

 into his mouth to chew, the words Oru chea sac rat svaJiap. The 

 sorcerers also sell marvelous invocations to augment the love of a 

 spouse who is too cool, to prevent jealousy troubling the peace of 

 polygamous households, and to cure slaves of the disposition to run 

 away. They have, too, formulas to cure the bites of scorpions and 

 snakes, to drive rats and mice away from granaries and sacks of 

 paddy, to dispel sorrow, and to make their persons plumj). 



]\Iany secrets have been lost in the course of time. I was told 

 that there were formerly sorcerers who could travel through the air 

 astraddle of a broomstick or of a porter's rod. The Malia Rusey, 

 or hermits of the Satras, are represented as having been able to 

 ascend in the air and penetrate everywhere, to bewitch arms, to 

 manufacture amulets, and render their friends and adepts invul- 

 nerable. The modern sorcerers, who have succeeded the Malm 

 Rusey, are much less powerful and less skillful. There are said to 

 be sorcerers who even make wax figures to which they give the 

 name of a person they wish to hurt or kill, and then stick with a 

 knife, pronouncing magical words at the same time, when the 



