[320] Campanella, "De sensu rerum et magia," l. iv. c. 18.
[321] Krusenstern's words are: "A universal belief in witchcraft, which is held to be very important by all islanders, seems to me to be connected with their religion; for they assert that the priests alone possess magic power, although some of the common people also, it is said, profess to have the secret, probably in order to make themselves feared, and to exact presents. This sorcery, which they call Kaha, consists in inflicting a lingering death upon those to whom they bear a grudge, twenty days being however fixed as the term for this. They go to work as follows. Whoever wishes to practise revenge by means of sorcery, seeks to procure either saliva or urine or excrements of his enemy in some way or other. These he mixes with a powder, lays the compound in a bag which is woven in a special manner, and buries it. The most important secret is in the art of weaving the bag in the right way and of preparing the powder. As soon as it is buried, the effects show themselves in the person who is the object of this witchcraft. He sickens, becomes daily weaker, loses at last all his strength, and in twenty days is sure to die. If, on the other hand, he attempts to divert his enemy's revenge from himself by offering up a pig, or making some other valuable present in order to save his life, he may yet be saved, even on the nineteenth day, and no sooner is the bag unburied, than the attacks of illness cease. He recovers gradually, and after a few days is quite restored to health."—"Reise um die Welt." Ed. in 12mo, 1812, Part i., p. 249 et seq. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[322] Kieser, "Archiv für thierischen Magnetismus," vol. ix. s. i. in the note, pp. 128-132.
[323] They scent something of the
"Nos habitat, non tartara sed nec sidera cœli:
Spiritus in nobis qui viget, illa facit."
(Not in the heavens it lives, nor yet in hell;
The spirit that does it all, doth in us dwell.)
Compare Johann Beaumont, "Historisch-Physiologisch-und Theologischer Tractat von Geistern, Erscheinungen, Hexereyen und andern Zauber-Händeln, Halle im Magdeburgischen, 1721," p. 281. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
[324] Compare Parerga, vol. i. p. 257 (2nd ed. vol. i. p. 286).