A PORTUGUESE MURDERED. 
163 
and fifty rupees,, amounting to twenty-five pounds 
sterling, and promised that within twenty-four hours 
after the payment of the sum stipulated, the offender 
should no longer be an inhabitant of this world. The 
bargain was concluded, the money paid, and on the 
evening of the following day the bloated body of the 
Portuguese was cast on shore by the tide below the 
walls of Tellichery. 
The relatives of the murdered man had sufficient 
influence to procure a rigid inquiry into the cause of 
the latter’s death ; the Nair, being suspected, was 
immediately apprehended and brought before the 
judicial authorities of the town. These were bribed 
by a liberal fee to do their duty, and the Nair, when 
pressed, denounced the Malear as the immediate per -r 
petrator of the crime. The man was accordingly 
arrested and brought to trial ; but he denied the fact 
with sturdy assurance, threatening to visit his pro- 
secutors with his mysterious power if he were not 
instantly released. The timid justiciaries were so 
awed by the menaces of this potent conjuror, that they 
acquitted him without hesitation. The relatives of 
the murdered man were, however, unexpectedly 
avenged. Two days after, the Nair was found dead 
upon the sea-shore. The juggler had thus fatally 
retaliated his own treacherous impeachment. 
