374 



sure rule of experience, the effects of natural or moral causes upon 

 the human mind, The characters of the natives of India, not- 

 withstanding all that has been published in Europe, are by no 

 means well understood there; and a careful and accurate investi- 

 gation of them, with a due discrimination of habits and usages, 

 as local or general, would afford a subject for a curious, useful, 

 and entertaining dissertation." 



After these general observations, the President instances seve- 

 ral very extraordinary facts respecting the brahmins; some of 

 which I have mentioned at Baroche. lie then introduces a 

 story from the judicial records, in which five women were put to 

 death for the supposed practice of sorcery. " In the year 1792, 

 three men of the caste of Soontaar, in one of the Bengal districts, 

 were indicted for the murder of these five women: the prisoners 

 without hesitation confessed the crime with which they were charged, 

 and pleaded in their defence, that with their tribes it was the im- 

 memorial custom and practice to try persons notorious for witch- 

 craft. That for this purpose an assembly was convened of those 

 of the same tribe, from far and near; and if, after due investio-a- 

 lion, the charge was proved, the sorcerers were put to death: and 

 no complaint was ever preferred on this account to the lulino- 

 power. That the women who were killed had undergone the pre- 

 scribed form of trial, were duly convicted of causing the death of 

 the son of one of the prisoners by witchcraft, and had been put 

 to death by the prisoners, in conformity to the sentence of the 

 assembly. 



" To ascertain with a degree of certainty the persons guilty of 

 practicing witchcraft, the three following modes are adopted. 



