SUPERSTITIONS, ADOPTION. 
women so dying, in order to compound potent spells and elixers of im¬ 
mortality ; a superstition formerly prevalent in the West. 
This last fancy they have had from the Bali writings, where the 
Am fit a of Sanscrit writ is a frequent theme. The magicians are 
supposed to act, some time after the body has been interred, in this 
manner. They proceed to the burial ground [for the bodies of the wo¬ 
men dying in child bed are never burned on the funeral pile] or Pa- 
chee P.hee deep , and endeavour to propitiate the spirit of the de¬ 
ceased by offerings of incense and viands, the deceased is supposed to 
burst from the tomb with a terrific yell, and to soar towards the sky, 
having first assumed a gigantic and appalling stature ; the potent in¬ 
cantations of the magician however soon force the spirit, it is fancied, 
to descend when, after a short parley, the magician unceremoniously 
pretends to decapitate it, and the relatives of the women suppose that 
they have gained the object of preventing its molesting them. 
The Malays are embued with superstitions of nearly a similar kind, 
and alike revolting. 
They sometimes extract the malee anal: or dead child from the 
womb of a woman who has died in labor and bury it in a separate 
place. They prick the fingers of the deceased with a needle, believing 
that if this ceremony should be neglected the spirit becomes a Lang- 
socnvee and flies off to the mountains with hair wildly dishevelled, and 
thereafter enters into and possesses the body of any individual. Other 
possessing spirits are also much dreaded by women in child bed and 
sick persons, particularly that one they term Pleset , which is a sort 
of invisible witch. She rides on the winds, and enters into the bo¬ 
dies of the sick, sorelv distressing them. When pressed by the nos¬ 
trums of the native physicians she is supposed to retreat to the fing¬ 
ers ends, and there expostulate w ith him through the mouth of the 
patient. 
Any number of children, and of either sex, may at any time be 
adopted, they not being relatives of the adopter within a certain de¬ 
gree, although brothers may be partially adopted and may be thus 
admitted to the present privileges of a son, but they will not necessa¬ 
rily inherit as spch. In the same way nephews or other relatives may 
