If A Stone, He Desires It To Be Carefully Preserved, Wrapped Up In Cotton And Deposited In A Basket. On Solemn Days When They Provide Much Food, Whether Fish, Flesh, Or Any Other, They Put It All First Into The House Of Their Cemi, That The Idol May Eat.

17. If the patient die and has many friends or was lord of a territory, so that the family dare contend with the Buhuitihu, and are disposed to be revenged for the loss of their friend, they proceed as follows; but mean people dare not oppose these jugglers.

They take the juice of an herb called gueio or zachon, with which they mix the parings of the dead mans nails and the hair of his forehead reduced to powder, and pour this mixture down the dead mans throat or nostrils, asking him whether the Buhuitihu were the cause of his death, and whether he observed order? repeating this question several times till he speaks as plain as if he were alive, so that he gives answers to all they ask, informing them that the Buhuitihu did not observe due order in his treatment, or that he had occasioned his death. It is said that the Buhuitihu then asks him whether he is alive, and how he comes to speak so plain, to which he answers that he is actually dead. After this strange interrogatory, they restore the body to the grave. There is another mode of conjuration on similar occasions. The dead body is thrown into a violent fire, and covered up with earth like a charcoal furnace, and then questioned as before. In this case the dead body gives ten distinct answers and no more. When the fire is uncovered the smoke proceeds into the house of the Buhuitihu, who falls sick in consequence and is covered all over with sores, so that his entire skin comes off. This is taken as a sure sign that the deceased had not been orderly treated, and the kindred conspire to be revenged on the Buhuitihu[3].

18. After this the kindred of the dead man way-lay the Buhuitihu, and break his legs, arms, and head with repeated blows of heavy clubs till they leave him for dead. They allege that during the night the poor battered Buhuitihu is visited by numerous snakes, white, black, green, and variegated, which lick his face, body, and fractured members till the bones knit together again, when he gets up and walks to his own house, pretending that the cemis had restored him. Enraged at the disappointment of their intended revenge, the kindred again assault him at the first opportunity, putting out his eyes and emasculating him, without which previous operation it alleged that a Buhuitihu cannot be lulled by the bastinado.

19. The cemis of wood are thus made. A person travelling sees some tree that seems to move or shake its roots, on which in great alarm he asks who is there? To this the tree answers that such or such a Buhuitihu knows and will inform.

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