a tattered cloth in front of him, and muttered some unintelligible gibberish, unceasingly making strange passes with his arms.  He put down a number of articles on his cloth—­which was villainously tattered and greasy—­an unripe plantain, a handful of rice, of parched peas, a thigh bone, two wooden cups, some balls, &c., &c.; all of which he kept constantly lifting and moving about, keeping up the passes and muttering all the time.

The child was a sickly-looking, pining sort of creature, rocking about in evident pain, and moaning and fretting just as sick children do.  Gradually its attention got fixed on the strange antics going on.  The Ojah kept muttering away, quicker and quicker, constantly shifting the bone and cups and other articles on the cloth.  His body was suffused with perspiration, but in about half an hour the child had gone off to sleep, and attended by some dozen old women, and the anxious father, was borne off in triumph to the house.

Another time one of Mr. D.’s female servants got bitten by a scorpion.  The poor woman was in great agony, with her arm swelled up, when an Ojah was called in.  Setting her before him, he began his incantations in the usual manner, but made frequent passes over her body, and over the bitten place.  A gentle perspiration began to break out on her skin, and in a very short time the Ojah had thrown her into a deep mesmeric sleep.  After about an hour she awoke perfectly free from pain.  In this case no doubt the Ojah was a mesmerist.

The influence of fear on the ordinary native is most wonderful.  I have known dozens of instances in which natives have been brought home at night for treatment in cases of snake-bite.  They have arrived at the factory in a complete state of coma, with closed eyes, the pupils turned back in the head, the whole body rigid and cold, the lips pale white, and the tongue firmly locked between the teeth.  I do not believe in recovery from a really poisonous bite, where the venom has been truly injected.  I invariably asked first how long it was since the infliction of the bite; I would then examine the marks, and as a rule would find them very slight.  When the patient had been brought some distance, I knew at once that it was a case of pure fright.  The natives wrap themselves up in their cloths or blankets at night, and lie down on the floors of their huts.  Turning about, or getting up for water or tobacco, or perhaps to put fuel on the fire, they unluckily tread on a snake, or during sleep they roll over on one.  The snake gives them a nip, and scuttles off.  They have not seen what sort of snake it is, but their imagination conjures up the very worst.  After the first outcry, when the whole house is alarmed, the man sits down firmly possessed by the idea that he is mortally bitten.  Gradually his fears work the effect a real poisonous bite would produce.  His eye gets dull, his pulse grows feeble, his extremities cold and numb, and unless forcibly roused by the bystanders