368 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
ated sufferer became the victim of despair. It is 
also possible that poison, of which the natives had 
several kinds, vegetable and animal, (some few of 
which they have stated as capable of destroying 
human life,) might have produced the violent con¬ 
vulsions that sometimes preceded dissolution. It 
is probable that into the piece of food—over which 
the sorcerer performed his enchantments—he in¬ 
troduced a portion of poison, which would prove 
fatal to the individual by whom it should be eaten. 
Indeed, some of the sorcerers, since their conver¬ 
sion to Christianity, and one of them on his death¬ 
bed, confessed that this had been practised, and 
that they supposed the poison had occasioned the 
death which had been attributed to their incan¬ 
tations. Others, however, still express 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, but confine myself to 
stating the sentiments of the people, and some of 
the facts connected with the same. It has been 
a subject of frequent conversation 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 con¬ 
tinued, 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- 
The sorcerers have always declared, that they could 
not prevail with the white men, because such were 
