258 DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH, 
two cows, two iron bars, and two hundred Kolla 
nuts. The marriage feast is open to the whole 
neighbourhood, and generally continues for three 
or four days. Each wife lives in a separate hut, 
all the contents of which, both furniture and 
provisions, being produced by her industry, are 
considered as entirely her property, with which the 
husband has no interference. 
Every person who dies is considered as having 
met his fate, either through the agency of witches, 
or as a punishment for some vow which he has vio- 
lated. One man having vowed never to part with 
a particular male slave, was afterwards, through the 
necessities of his family, obliged to sell him ; but 
however urgent the motive was, it did not prevent 
his sudden death from being imputed to this per- 
jury. Among their superstitious practices, may be 
mentioned the mode of trial, by making the ac- 
cused dip his hands into scalding water ; when, if 
the natural effect be produced, he is immediately 
concluded guilty. An English captain was so far 
enamoured of the native customs, as to adopt this 
mode of judicial investigation. Having missed a 
gun, he caused his crew to put their hands into 
boiling water, by which, it seems, " they scalded 
" themselves miserably." As he was triumphing, 
however, in the success of this mode of detection, 
he unexpectedly discovered the gun in his own 
