The poor people use the ribs of these fish to make rafters,
the backbones for door leaves, and they cut off vertebrae to make mortars
with."
SCOTRA.
XXXII., p. 407. "And you must know that in this island there are the best
enchanters in the world. It is true that their Archbishop forbids the
practice to the best of his ability; but 'tis all to no purpose, for they
insist that their forefathers followed it, and so must they also. I will
give you a sample of their enchantments. Thus, if a ship be sailing past
with a fair wind and a strong, they will raise a contrary wind and compel
her to turn back. In fact they make the wind blow as they list, and
produce great tempests and disasters; and other such sorceries they
perform, which it will be better to say nothing about in our Book."
Speaking of Chung-li (Somali Coast), Chau Ju-kwa writes, p. 130: "There
are many sorcerers among them who are able to change themselves into
birds, beasts, or aquatic animals, and by these means keep the ignorant
people in a state of terror. If some of them in trading with some foreign
ship have a quarrel, the sorcerers pronounce a charm over the ship, so
that it can neither go forward nor backward, and they only release the
ship when it has settled the dispute. The government has formally
forbidden this practice."
Hirth and Rockhill add, p. 132: "Friar Joanno dos Santos (A.D. 1597) says:
'In the Ile of Zanzibar dwelt one Chande, a great sorcerer, which caused
his Pangayo, which the Factor had taken against his will, to stand still
as it were in defiance of the Winde, till the Factor had satisfied him,
and then to fly forth the River after her fellowes at his words. He made
that a Portugall which had angered him, could never open his mouth to
speake, but a Cocke crowed in his belly, till he had reconciled himselfe:
with other like sorceries.'" See PURCHAS, His Pilgrimes, IX., 254.
"Not twenty years ago, Theo. Bent found that the Somalis were afraid of
the witchcraft of the natives of Socotra. Theo. BENT, Southern Arabia,
p. 361."
XXXIII., p. 412. Speaking of the bird Ruc at Madeigascar, Marco Polo says:
"It is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry
him high into the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces;
having so killed him the bird gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at
leisure."
Chau Ju-kwa writing of K'un lun ts'oeng' ki, on the coast of Africa,
writes, p. 149:
