the mothers, on being referred to, refused to incur any
responsibility, and expose themselves to the reproaches of their
daughters, by urging them to an abridgment of the trial, of which
they might afterwards repent. The missionaries seem to have been most
diligent in the task, as they called it, of "reducing strayed souls
to matrimony." Father Benedict succeeded with no fewer than six
hundred, but he found it such "laborious work," that he fell sick and
died. Another subject of deep regret, respecting the many
superstitious practices still prevalent, even among those who
exhibited some sort of Christian profession, was, that sometimes the
children, brought for baptism, were bound with magic cords, to which
the mothers, as an additional security from evil, had fastened beads,
relics, and figures of the Agnus Dei. It was a compound of paganism
and Christianity, which the priests turned away from with disgust;
but still the mothers seemed more inclined to part with the beads,
relics, and figures of the Agnus Dei, than their magic cords. The
chiefs, in like manner, while they testified no repugnance to avail
themselves of the protection promised from the wearing of crucifixes
and images of the Virgin, were unprepared to part with the enchanted
rings and other pagan amulets with which they had been accustomed to
form a panoply round their persons. In case of dangerous illness,
sorcery had been always contemplated as the main or sole remedy, and
those who rejected its use were reproached, as rather allowing their
sick relations to die, than incur the expense of a conjuror. But the
most general and pernicious application of magic was made in judicial
proceedings: when a charge was advanced against any individual, no
one ever thought of inquiring into the facts, or of collecting
evidence--every case was decided by preternatural tests. The
magicians prepared a beverage, which produced on the guilty person,
according to the measure of his iniquity, spasm, fainting, or death,