NARRATIVE GF MEROLLA. 
123 
possession, for this purpose, of the two persons in 
question. 
Besides these medical wizards, there was a 
higher class called Scingilli, who boasted the 
power of dispensing rain at pleasure, to whom 
prayers for that blessing were regularly addressed, 
and who claimed a portion of the fruits which 
their influence produced. Several of these per- 
sons openly defended to MeroUa the usefulness, 
and even necessity of their vocation ; demanding, 
what would become of the country, if there were 
no one who could administer that beneficent ele- 
ment ? The head, or king of these magicians, is 
a person called Ganga Chitorne, or God of the 
Earth, to whom, accordingly, its first fruits are 
regularly paid. This person holds it impossible 
that he can die a natural death ; on finding, 
therefore, that his end approaches, he transfers 
his power to a favourite disciple, and causes him- 
self to be publicly put to death. It is impossible 
to express the anxiety of the inhabitants lest the 
office should be vacant, as in that case it appears 
to them, that the earth must immediately become 
barren, and the human race perish. 
One of the forms in which the magicians exer- 
cised their power, was by imposing prohibitions 
which were not to be violated under the most 
dreadful penalties. On this head, a striking in- 
stance is given of the power of imagination, A 
