The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-26
SOME CONDOLENCES
CORRESPONDENT TELLS or Ex-
 ANTILLES OF CERTIFIED CASES.
Beliefs of East Indian Natives That
 Seem Pounded on . Good Basis of Fncta.

.-t
 The public seems to be interested in coincidences just now. Let me contrib ute few examples which have the au-
 thority of responsible persons, certt-
 fled to by publication, says The St.
 James Gazette. In his exhaustive re-
 view of Malay Magic." MT. W. ".
 Skeat of the Civil Service of the Fed erated States, gives an interesting ac-
 count of the regalia of Selangore.
 Among them is a trumpet which no one
 must touch except the reigning Sultan
 and the heir apparent, or he Will De
 struck by illness. Mir. Skeat was anx-
 ious to examine these things. of course.
 and one day the Rajah Mudah allowed
 him to take the sacred trumpet into
 his hands. T thought nothing more of
 the matter, but by what was really
 very curious coincidence, within few
 days I was seized with a very sharp
 attack of malarial influenza. which
 obliged me to leave the district. The
 report of my indisposition appears to
 have made a profound impression and
 a Malay, who probably thought himself
 indebted to me for some assistance,
 vowed to offer sacrifices at the shrine
 of local saint for my recovery ana
 Mir. Sweat had to attend banquet at
 the saints tomb in gratitude for his
 merciful intervention.
 The Milanau tribe of Sarawak have a
 practice of depositing large leaf, pe-
 culiarly folded, at the spot where an
 accident has happened. to conciliate
 the powers of evil. A man hurt him
 self in the Rajah's garden, and some
 Milanus employed there hastened to
 perform the ceremony of propitiation.
 The present Rajah, Sir Charles Brooks.
 tells what followed !n his Ten Years in Sarawak" He disliked to see this
 litter on the path and told them to re-
 move it. But the Milanus said that
 the arm of any one touching the leaf
 would swell So the Rajah threw 1t
 away himself--and two days afterward
 he had a pail full swelling In his arm,
 which lasted for a fortnight So Gen eral MacIntyre records in Hfndoo
 Koh" how the mountaineers assured him that something disagreeable would happen to any one who killed the rare aibino goohal He shot one, neverthe- less and the same day his gun burst putting an end to the Generals sport for many a day.
 In The Journal of the Indian Archi- pelago is a narrative of MT. Jonathan Riggs's ascent of Cunning Danka, Tn Java. quoted hy MT. Taylor of anthro- biological renown.F The top of that mountain Is supposed to be the site Of paradise, and the Javanese believe that if the local Rajah permits any stranger | to climb it a tiger will devour him. A day or two after Mir. Riggs's feat ti- ger killed two of the Rajah's children. Readers of the late Captain Welby's
 "Twixt Sirdah and Menelek." only need A hint to recall his singular description of a race in Africa possessed by devils, according to their neighbors' report. They think that these people transfer a sufficient number of their superfuous demons to the body of any stranger they come across, looking out for an opportunity when he is so incautious as to eat in their presence. Captain well by laughed at the tale. But on the oay | of arrival in the Walanna country one | of his Somalis ran mad, assumed the | look of a wild man, talked utter nom | sense and raved, calling on the Waia- mos and shaking from head to loot. Presently he rushed about the camp seeking victims. To calm the fears of his people Captain Wilby breakfasteo | in the open air. among Waiamos. wno | saw him eat Next morning he woke as if very i'll, "as if sea sick" and suf- | fered violent internal pains all day. | Then another Somalo was attacked, As prudent man Captain Welby re- stunned his journey with speed. not | waiting to see the explanations or these remarkable incidents.
 Many Indian villages are haunted py
 ghost, often that of some ancient landowner who makes himself dis | agreeable to new tenants. So leases are granted in the old gentlemails name, and then he is content usually; but sometimes neither this nor any | other device will propitiate him. In
 such cases the spot is deserted. piece off fine land in the valley of the Ner- budda had fallen into this state. The ghost claiming it was especially active and malignant; and the native revenue | officers fatly declined to survey It. At | length the magistrate of the district MT. Lindsay, resolved to undertake the business himself, and got a brand | new cord for the purpose. The people | warned him, but he set to work-and his new cord snapped in tho first field; on the very same day he took cholera and died. Colonel S1eeman. whose
 "Rambles and fecollections" delighted our grandfathers-ands still delight the few who know them-visited the scene | a few years later. Natives who were present told him that they saw the rope | fly into 10000 pieces. and heard demon lac bursts of laughter. But of Indian