272 MEETINGS. 



when the suspected lady's name was mentioned, though it 

 never moved at the name of any other member of the family. 

 Indeed, as one of the disappointed co-heirs remarked, the 

 sacred volume seemed to fall with quite a disgusted and 

 indignant flop, as though it had no patience with the sinful 

 cupidity of the hypocritical and dishonest old woman, whom 

 they all felt morally certain was the thief. The latter, how- 

 ever, although confronted with the tell-tale Bible, stoutly 

 maintained her innocence, while not a trace of the missing 

 articles was ever seen in her cottage. But, a few months later, 

 she herself was taken ill and died. And then, when eager 

 hands rummaged her cupboards, they found, carefully packed 

 away on a top shelf, the whole of the purloined silver, which, 

 on account of the family outcry, she had never dared to use. 

 Here, then, was a triumphant proof that the ancient mode of 

 divination had spoken truly. 



One old lady tells me that for many years past she has 

 been most successful in the cure of abscesses or tumours by 

 the method known as Ddcompta'i, or uncounting (counting 

 backward). The process lasts nine mornings. On the first 

 morning certain circular passes are made round the abscess 

 from right to left — that is, in the opposite direction to the 

 movement of the hands of a clock. The operator then counts 

 slowly backward from nine to one, and next offers a short 

 prayer or form of exorcism, the tenor of which is a secret. 

 On each of the remaining eight mornings the backward 

 counting and the form of prayer are repeated, but it is not 

 necessary on these occasions to renew the passes, or even to 

 see the patient. The operator can recite the formula in her 

 own house and it will be equally efficacious. On the ninth 

 day the patient is cured — or ought to be. One curious fea- 

 ture in the case, as told me by the old lady-operator, is that 

 on every one of the nine mornings when reciting the pre- 

 scribed prayer, &c, she herself feels very sick, just for the 

 time, but the nausea passes off directly after. It is the prayer 

 or exorcism that is held to be the most important feature in 

 the ceremony ; indeed, this is the key to all the rest. So much 

 so, in fact, that its form or tenor cannot be imparted to anyone 

 else without the operator personally losing the special power 

 of healing which it confers. My informant had it from an old 

 woman who was on her deathbed, and who therefore felt that 

 she herself would have no further opportunities of using it. 

 Hence her willingness to transfer the power to this friend of 

 hers, who, in turn, hopes herself to hand on the tradition 

 before she joins the majority — but she will not part with the 

 secret yet. 



