37°2 



have had these solemn injunctions. " There shall not be found 

 anions you any one that uselh divination, or is an observer of 

 times, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a necromancer; for 

 all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord." 



Dr. Francis Buchanan mentions a man who was supposed to 

 be possessed by one of these evil spirits in Mysore; which caused 

 great uproar in the village, and was at length appeased by the 

 brahmins' prayers, and strewing consecrated ashes over the invalid. 

 Dr. Buchanan proves that this man was subject to the epilepsy, 

 and that the recurrence of the fit had been occasioned by a vio- 

 lent paroxym of intoxication. That I have no doubt was the 

 cause in this instance, but I am of opinion that the effects I have 

 alluded to, proceeded from other causes, although I cannot under- 

 take to explain them. The petition of the Parsee merchant was 

 entered on the records of the court of Adawlet at Baroche, and 

 I preserved it among my manuscripts, on account of the impres- 

 sion it then made upon my mind, and the agitation it caused in 

 a large city, inhabited by many thousand Hindoos, Mahomedans, 

 and Parsees, widely differing in religious sentiments, but unitino- 

 in the belief of this supernatural agency. When these facts are 

 compared with many other circumstances, more or less connected 

 with them, throughout these volumes, respecting the ignorance, 

 superstition, and prejudices of the natives in general, their intro- 

 duction may perhaps not be thought irrelevant to the subject of 

 Indian jurisprudence. 



Since the commencement of this selection from my original 

 manuscripts, I have endeavoured to omit such passages as did not 

 appear generally interesting; and by abridging others as much as 



