487 



supposed to possess the art of divination, and are in consequence 

 the reputed prophets and seers of the country: these they pre- 

 tended would inform me of the truth, and prevent an improper 

 suspicion. But being then within a few miles of Brodera, Futty 

 Sihng's capital, I collected many circumstances which left me no 

 doubt of the murderer, and considering it altogether as a foreign 

 concern, I took no further notice of the deed. 



Many transactions in the administration of justice at Dhuboy 

 brought me acquainted with the Hindoo soothsayers above-men- 

 tioned. They are an extraordinary set of people, more particu- 

 larly described in a following chapter. Although I do not liken 

 them to Samuel and the early prophets in sacred writ, (nor did they 

 immediately resembie the augurs and diviners of Homer and 

 Virgil) I often found them and their employers entertaining the 

 same ideas, and following the same practice as is recorded of the 

 seers in Palestine; especially in the little story told of Saul and 

 his servants, who being sent in quest of some strayed asses belong- 

 ing to his father, had passed through the land of Shalisha and 

 Shalim, and found them not : he therefore purposed returning 

 home without them, to relieve his father's anxiety for their own 

 safety. Being then near to Ramah, the residence of Samuel the 

 prophet, the servant said unto Saul, " Behold now, there is in this 

 city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith 

 cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; peradventure he 

 can shew us our way that we should go. Then said Saul to his 

 servant, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for 

 the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring 

 to the man of God; what have we? And the servant answered, 



