Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/526

460 stable.) Axe in hand, he repaired to the tree. The Burghers warned him not to tempt the power of the god, and, when the axe fell with vigorous strokes upon its abode, foretold his sudden death, assuring him that the god would enter his body and kill him. The missionary plied his axe, calling on the god to come out and do his worst, until the tree was felled to the ground. Like the inhabitants of Melita, “They looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly;" but when they saw that no harm came to him, they knew not what to say. Had he met with any accident or sickness months after this feat, it would have been set down as an evidence of the power and anger of the god.

The Badagas have an extreme superstitious fear of another tribe, the Curumbars, who live far down in the ravines and clefts of the mountains, two thousand feet above the level of the sea. They are about a thousand in number, and, while following a rude kind of cultivation, live largely upon their reputation as sorcerers. So greatly do the Badagas dread their magical powers, that if sick they will impute it to the incantations of some poor Curumbar whom they may have met when crossing the moun-