CHAPTER XXIII 
FUNERAL CEREMONIES— WITCHCRAFT. 
There are many things connected with 
their funeral ceremonies and notions of 
death which are both foolish and wicked. 
As soon as persons die they are opened, 
to ascertain whether witches killed them or 
not. If the heart is enlarged, or any of 
the internal organs have an unnatural ap- 
pearance — a very common thing in that 
country, — they say "witch killed them." 
Indeed if what I saw be a correct criterion 
by which to judge in the matter, nearly all 
the deaths that occur are the work of witches, 
either directly or indirectly. 
At York Island, a town in which I preach- 
ed several times, a youth was killed by an 
alligator whilst bathing in the river. The 
people said " some witch turned alligator 
and killed him." Subsequently, a man was 
killed near Kaw Mendi station, by a leopard, 
and the people there said, "some witch 
turned leopard and killed him." Very 
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