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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
poison had occasioned the death which had been attri¬ 
buted to their incantations. Others, however, still ex¬ 
press their belief, that they were so completely under the 
dominion of the evil spirit, that his power extended to 
the body as well as to the mind. I offer no opinion on 
this matter, hut confine myself to stating the sentiments 
of the people, and some of the facts connected with the 
same. It has been a subject of very frequent conversa¬ 
tion with several of the most reflecting among the natives, 
who, since they have become Christians, have expressed 
their deliberate belief that their bodies were subject to 
Satanic agency. 
It is a singular fact, that while the practice continued, 
with all its supernatural influence, among the natives, 
the sorcerers invariably confessed that incantations were 
harmless when employed upon Europeans : several have 
more than once been threatened with sorcery, and there 
is reason to believe it has been put to the test upon 
them. They have always declared, that they could not 
prevail with the white men, because such were under the 
keeping of a more powerful Being than the spirits they 
could engage against them, and therefore were secure. 
The native Missionaries, in different islands, have also 
been threatened with sorcery from the idolaters among 
whom they have endeavoured to introduce Christianity. 
They have always defied the sorcerers and their demons, 
telling them that Jehovah would protect them from their 
machinations; and though frequently exposed to incanta¬ 
tions, have never sustained the slightest injury. 
The sentiments entertained by the natives relative to 
the character of these supernatural beings, led them to 
imagine them such as they were themselves, only en¬ 
dowed with greater powers. They supposed that in all 
