70 
MISSIONARY LIFE 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
FUNERAL CEREMONIES, WITCHCRAFT. 
There are many things connected with their 
funeral ceremonies and notions of death which are 
both foolish and wicked. 
Often as soon as persons die they are opened, ta 
ascertain whether witches killed them or not. If 
the liver is enlarged, or any of the internal organs 
have an unnatural appearance, — a very common 
thing in that malarious country, — =they say witch 
killed them.’’ Indeed if what I saw be a correct 
criterion by which to judge of 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 preached 
several times, a youth was killed by an alligator 
while bathing in the river. The people said, ^‘Some 
witch turned alligator and killed him.” Subse- 
quently a man was killed near Kaw Mendi Station^ 
by a leopard, and the people there said, Some 
witch turned leopard and killed him.” Very 
