226 INDIAN CUSTOMS. 



That the women who were killed had undergone 

 the prescribed form of trial, were duly convicted 

 of causing the death of the son of one of the 

 prisoners by witch-craft, and had been put to 

 death by the prisoners, in conformity to the 

 sentence of the assembly." 



The prosecutors who, agreeably to the forms 

 of the Mahommedan law, were the relations of 

 the deceased women, declared they had no charge 

 to prefer against the prisoners, being satisfied 

 that their relations had really practised sorcery. 



The custom pleaded by the prisoners was fully 

 substantiated by the testimony of a great number 

 of witnesses, who recited specific facts in support 

 of it, without any denial or disagreement ; and, 

 from the collective evidence exhibited in the 

 course of the inquiry, the following curious and 

 extraordinary circumstances appeared : 



That the successive demise of three or four 

 young people in a village, led to suspicion of 

 sorcery as the cause of it ; and the inhabitants 

 taking alarm, were upon the watch to detect 

 the witches. They were generally discovered 

 dancing naked at midnight by the light of a lamp, 



