FIRST JOURNEY. 



49 



by the hand of superstition, till proof positive can be 

 obtained. 



We might argue on the subject, and by bringing 

 forward instances of Indian superstition, draw our 

 conclusion by inference, and still remain in doubt on 

 tliis head. You know superstition to be the offspring 

 of ignorance, and of course that it takes up its abode 

 amongst the rudest tribes of uncivilized man. It even 

 too often resides with man in his more enlightened 

 state. 



The Augustan age furnishes numerous examples. A 

 bone snatched from the jaws of a fasting bitch, and a 

 feather from the wing of a night owl — " ossa ab ore 

 rapta jejunse canis, plumamque nocturnse strigis," — were 

 necessary for Canidia's incantations. And in aftertimes, 

 parson Evans, the Welshman, was treated most ungen- 

 teelly by an enraged spirit, solely because he had for- 

 gotten a fumigation in his witch-work. 



If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense give 

 way, and believes, or allows himself to be persuaded, 

 that certain substances and actions, in reality of no 

 avail, possess a virtue which renders them useful in 

 producing the wished-for effect ; may not the wild, un- 

 taught, unenlightened savage of Guiana, add an ingre- 

 dient which, on account of the harm it does him, he 

 fancies may be useful to the perfection of his poison, 

 though, in fact, it be of no use at all 1 If a bone 

 snatched from the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought 

 necessary in incantation ; or if witchcraft have recourse 

 to the raiment of the owl, because it resorts to the 

 tombs and mausoleums of the dead, and wails and 

 hovers about at the time that the rest of animated 

 nature sleeps ; certainly the savage may imagine that 



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