Page 222 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

the Chief at once consented we began afresh, and
this time I put the name of the suspected person on
first, and once more the vessel turned round and
twisted itself out of the hands of the holders, till it
fell on the floor and I was surprised it did not break.
After trying a few more I said I was satisfied, and
the ordeal of the bowl was over.
Then the Chief asked me whose name had been on
the vessel when it moved, and I told him. It was
a curious coincidence certainly. I wrote the names
in English, which no one could read ; moreover, I
was so placed that no one could see what I wrote,
and they none of them attempted to do so. Then
the papers were folded up so as to be all exactly
alike, they were shuffled together, and I did not
know one from the other till I looked inside myself.
Each time I went from my corner and placed a name
on the vessel already held on the fingers of its
supporters. No one except I touched the papers,
and no one but the Chief ever spoke till the seance
was over. I asked the men who held the bowl why
they made it turn round at that particular moment,
but they declared they had nothing to do with it,
and that the vessel twisted itself off their fingers
against their inclination.
The name disclosed by this experiment was
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