7042 Natural-History Collectors. 



continue to wander about in the parts which they frequented during 

 their lives. When they kill an animal they never fail to make 

 a small sacrifice to it, in case its soul should come and torment 

 them ; they also ask pardon for having deprived the soul of its body. 

 When it happens to be a large and fearful animal, such as an 

 elephant, the ceremony becomes more imposing ; all the village takes 

 part in it, and during several days instruments and songs resound, so 

 as to appease the soul of the majestic animal. 



Their superstitions are numerous ; the cry of the owl during the 

 night, the sight of a crow when about to set out on a journey, are 

 considered bad omens, and are sufficient lO make them change their 

 plans. When they are sick it is the demon they say who torments 

 them, and day and night, without intermission, they make a fearful 

 uproar around the sick man, so as to deliver him from its power; and 

 their noise does not cease until one of them falls down, as if in a 

 swoon, crying out, " 1 have him ! he has passed into me ! he is suffo- 

 cating me ! '' They then interrogate the newly-possessed as to the 

 remedies which must be used so as to cure the patient, and then what 

 the demon requires or demands to abandon his prey, which is at 

 times an ox, a pig, and, too often, a human being ; in the latter case, 

 they without pity seize upon a poor slave, whom they sacrifice to the 

 malevolent spirit. They imagine that all white people inhabit small 

 corners of the earth situated in the middle of the sea, and they are 

 so simple that they frequently ask whether there are women in our 

 country ? If you answer them, in jest, " No" ; and tell them that when 

 one wishes for offspring you have only to pull out a few hairs, plant 

 them, and by the heat of the sun they grow into' little children, 

 they are willing to believe it, and ready to make an experiment unless 

 you undeceive them. What they are most in want of is salt, and this 

 is perhaps the cause of many cutaneous diseases which I remark 

 among them, and this want of salt arises from the fear which the 

 Cambodian merchants have to penetrate into their country. 



Besides this, the forests well merit the reputation they have of 

 being insalubrious, and the natives themselves are tormented with 

 fevers. The two French missionaries, who, like lost sentinels, occupy 

 this solitary post, have suffered much from various diseases. Out of 

 fifteen Annamites who accompanied them here, two-thirds are continu- 

 ally travelling about. My own health, thank God, is excellent, notwith- 

 standing hard work and long journeys, and the hatchet is at work as 

 much as the net. We are here surrounded by tigers, rhinoceroses, 

 buffaloes and wild oxen. However, those terrible neighbours cause 



