521 



fortune-telling brahmins, as they are generally called by the Eng- 

 lish. It is a subject as unsatisfactory, and difficult to investigate, 

 as was that of the Parsces possessed by the demons at Baroche. 

 Not to gratify my own inclination, but at the particular desire of 

 some discerning friends who had read them in my letters, and 

 whose names would add respectability to any publication, I have 

 selected three anecdotes on that subject, from many others well 

 known in India. I chose these in particular, because, let the pre- 

 diction itself stand on what basis it may, I was acquainted with 

 the principal persons concerned in each occurrence ; and because 

 several eminent persons, now living in England, are ready to attest 

 the truth of the narration. 



I have frequently mentioned the augurs and soothsayers, com- 

 mon in ancient history, sacred and profane. There are in modern 

 India some brahmins, who, like the magicians of Egypt and the 

 astrologers of Chaldea, are supposed to " have within them the 

 spirit of the holy gods, and light, and understanding, and wisdom, 

 in shewing hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts:" this is as 

 certain as that such persons existed in Babylon when Daniel was 

 consulted by the Chaldean and Persian monarchs. The men I 

 now speak of are in no respect similar to the necromancers at 

 Baroche, nor do they at all resemble the Jiggerkhars, or liver- 

 eaters mentioned in the Ayeen-Akbery, whom I consider to be 

 of the same kind as those persons among the Parsees at Baroche, 

 who called up demons or genii by some extraordinary agency. 

 Abul Faze], in the Ayeen-Akbery, says, " one of the wonders of 

 this country is the Jiggerkhar, or liver-eater: one of this class can 

 steal away the liver of another by looks and incantations; other 



VOL. II. 3 x 



