Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/228

220 the efficacy of which, when properly gone about, to destroy life, is still implicitly believed in by the bulk of the population in the more rustic parts of the Highlands. The modus operandi consists in the operator modelling an image in clay of the person whose death is desired, and, having muttered the appropriate incantation over it, placing it in water running towards the east, the idea being that the body of the victim wastes away in exact proportion as the water wears away the clay of the image. When a sudden death is desired the image is placed in a rapidly-running stream. If, on the other hand, a long lingering and painful illness should be desired, a number of pins and rusty nails are struck in the chest and other vital parts of the image, which is then deposited in comparatively still waters. Should, however, the corp creadh happen to be discovered in the water before the thread of life is severed, it at once loses its efficacy; and not only does the victim recover, but, so long as the image is kept intact, he is ever after proof against the professors of the black art. That the attempt had miscarried in the case of the officer in question is attributed by the believers in witchcraft to the fact that a pearl-fisher, in the course of his legitimate calling, happened to discover the image before it had been many days in the water.—Glasgow Herald, May 12, 1884.

Notes on some Customs of the Aborigines of the Albert District, New South Wales.—By, F.G.S., F.L.S.—Mr. W. H. J. Slee, the Government Inspector of Mines, has given me the following particulars regarding a singular ceremony which the aboriginal tribes of the Mount Poole district perform, when, as is often the case in that arid region, they need rain.

In many parts of that country gypsum occurs abundantly in the soil, but the fibrous variety known as Satin Spar is comparatively rare. The latter is highly prized by the natives, and is called by them "rain-stone," for they believe that the Great Spirit uses it in making rain, and probably also because they regard it as solidified rain on account of the resemblance of its fibrous or striated structure to heavy rain; the more pronounced are the striations the more the stone is valued.

About two years ago, Mr. Slee, when warden of the Mount Poole