ciiAP. X.] MJyUEUS FEARS, 161 



it, antl sliot two or three times at it, but could never hit ib. 

 " All 1 " says an old Malay, " its time was not come, and 

 30 it was impossible for you to kill it." A doctrine thi3 

 which is very consoling to the bad marksman, and which 

 quite accounts for the facts, but which is yet souMihow not 

 altogether satisfactory. 



It is univei-sally bt;lieved in Lorabock tliat somt) men 

 have the power t<y tarn themselves into crtxiodnes, which 

 they do for the sake of devouring their enemies, and many 

 strange tales are told of such transformations. I Wiia 

 therefore rather surprised one evening to hear the following 

 curious fact stated, and as it was not contradicted by any 

 of the persona present I am inclined to accept it provi- 

 sionally, as a contribution to the Natural History of the 

 island A Bornean Malay who had been for many years 

 resident here said to Manuel, "One thing is strange in 

 tlus country — the scarcity of ghosts." " flow so ? " asked 

 Manuel, " Why, you know " said the ^lalay, " that in our 

 countries to the westward, if a man dies of is killed, we 

 dare not pass near the place at night, for all sorts of noises 

 are heard which show that, ghosts are about But here 

 there are numbers of men killed, and their bodies lie un- 

 huried in the fhjlds and by the rotkiside, and yet you car* 

 walk by them at night and never heai- or see anything at 

 all, which is not the case in our country, as you know very 

 well." " Certainly I do " said Manuel ; and so it was 

 settled that ghosts were very scarce, if not altogether 

 unknown in Lombock. I would observe, however, that aa 

 the evidence is purely negative we should be wanting in 

 scientific caution if we accepted this fact as sufficiently 

 well established. 



One evenmg 1 heard IManuel, AH, and a Malay man 

 whispering earnestly together outside the door, and could 

 distinguish various allusions to " krisses," throat-cutting, 

 heails, &c. <Src. At length Manuel came in, looking very 

 solemn and frightened, and said to me in English, " Sir — 

 must take care ; — no safe here ; — want cut throat," On 

 further inquiry, I found that the IMalay hatl been telling 

 them, that the Hajah had just sent down an order to the 

 village, that they were to get a certain number of heads for 

 an otTering in the temples to secure a good crop of rice. 



M 



