54S THE XORTHEKX FORESTS. [Part IX. 



is, that as the ceremony proceeds, and the paste dries up 

 on tlie leaden plate, the sufferer will waste away and de- 

 cline, and that death, as an inevitable consequence, must 

 follow. 



In this instance a watch was kept upon the pro- 

 ceedings of the suspected doctor, and it was ascer- 

 tained that he and liis family were engaged in the most 

 infamous practices. His sons were his assistants in 

 operations sunilar to that Avhich has been described, and 

 in the preparation of philters to facihtate seduction and 

 medicines for producing abortion. His house was an 

 asylum for unmarried females in pregnancy, where their 

 accouchements were assisted by women retained for 

 their knowledge of midwifery ; and the skulls of the 

 infants were apphed as occasion required for the com- 

 position of love potions and the performance of incant- 

 ations. 



In the course of the folloAving moutli\ a second com- 

 plaint against the same inchvidual was brought before 

 the magistrate at Jaffna, to the effect that on a stated 

 morning, he had mmxlered an infant in order to possess 

 himself of its head, and that at the moment of bringing 

 the charge, a second child was concealed in his dwelling, 

 and destined for a similar fate. On searching the house the 

 body of one cliild was found as represented, with the head 

 recently severed ; and after considerable search, the other 

 httle creature was discovered, still ahve, under some bas- 

 kets near the roof of an inner apartment. The doctor 

 and his sons had been seen on pre\dous occasions to buiy 

 something in the garden at the rear of the building. On 

 this being dug over, the remains of other children were 

 discovered, in sufficient numbers to attest the extent 

 of the practice. Unfortunately the criminal was him- 

 self permitted to escape ; the character of his establish- 

 ment, and the testimony of the women in his service 



1 8th Jaiiuarv, 1840. 



