360 ON SOME EXTRAORDINARY FACTS, CUSTOMS, 



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 custompleaded by the prisoners was fully sub- 

 stantiated by the testimony of a great number of wit- 

 nesses, who recited specific facts in support of it, 

 without any denial or disagreement ; and from the 

 collective evidence exhibited in the course of the en- 

 quiry, the following curious and extraordinary cir- 

 cumstances appeared : — 



That the successive demise of three or four young 

 people in a village, led to a 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, with a broom tied round 

 their waists, either near the house of a sick perfon, 

 or on the outside of the village. 



To ascertain with a greater degree of certainty the 

 persons guilty of practising witchcraft, the three fol- 

 lowing modes are adopted : 



First. Branches of the Saul tree, marked with the 

 names of ail the females in the village, whether mar- 

 ried or unmarried, who have attained the age of twelve 

 years, are planted in the water in the morning, for the 

 space of four hours and a half; and the withering of 

 any of these branches is proof of witchcraft against 

 the person whose name is annexed to it. 



Secondly. 



