278 SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOMS. 



of the late son of the king, whose willingness 

 to assist us and whose death I have already 

 alluded to. The women came down to the 

 water-side to wash, following each other singly 

 to the number of twenty-nine, and dressed in 

 blue cloths, with pieces of cotton round the neck, 

 wrists, and ankles. They raised a most lugu- 

 brious cry, and proceeded to drink poison, from a 

 belief that they had wished their husband's death. 

 Their superstition leads them to believe that if 

 they were guilty, the poison would kill them ; but 

 if innocent, that it will prove harmless. Out of 

 sixty of these poor infatuated wretches, thirty-one 

 of them died ; while others who vomited imme- 

 diately escaped death, but were of course very ill 

 from the effects of the inflammation. Such su- 

 perstition has no doubt prevailed in most coun- 

 tries where darkness has obscured the mind of 

 mankind. Our own country has been no excep- 

 tion ; and old women suspected of sorcery being 

 bound hand and foot, and thrown into a pond or 

 canal, is about as bad as administering poison. 

 If they floated (a thing morally impossible), they 

 were deemed innocent ; but if they disappear- 

 ed, they were considered guilty. 



In the course of the night, lately, two canoes 



