Another trial by ordeal (which, I believe, has formerly been practised in England, and has probably been taught them by the whites) is thus performed:—A door-key is placed between the leaves of the Bible, upon the 18th and 19th verses of the 50th Psalm, and the book is then bound tightly round so that the key cannot fall out; care must be taken at the same time that the key is sufficiently large, that after being placed upon the verses mentioned, part of the handle or bole may be left out. Two persons, the accused and accuser, balance the bound book by placing the first finger of the right hand under the bole of the key, and in this situation make use of the following incantation, (as I suppose I must call it:) “By St. Peter, by St. Paul, you tief me hog,” (or whatever else it may be that is stolen;) the accused answers, “By St. Peter, by St. Paul, me no tief you hog;” this is repeated thrice by both parties. If the accused is guilty, the key immediately turns, but if not, the charm is tried upon all who are suspected, until the event takes place. What St. Peter or St. Paul have to do with this, I could never learn, but to me it seems very shocking to make a conjuring book of the Bible. In respect to this part of superstition, the negroes are like the natives of the east, who never lose anything without trying some charm, either by balls of wax, grains of rice, or something similar.[15] There is another curious way by which the negroes endeavour to recover their stolen property. For example: If they lose a fowl or a pig, or indeed any other article, and they suspect it is stolen by their neighbours, they walk up and down the street, calling out, “Let go me fowl—let go me fowl! If you no let go me fowl, me tro grabe durtty upon you. Let go me fowl, me say!” If the person who stole the fowl hears this denunciation, he immediately looses it, in terror of the consequences; but if the threat is not attended to, the owner of the lost biped takes a dog (the same copper coin I have before mentioned) and an egg, and proceeds to a burial-ground. Here they look out for the grave of one of their friends, and depositing the dog and the egg, make use of an incantation, and taking up a little of the soft mould off the grave, depart. This mould, or _grabe durtty_, as they term it, they sprinkle all about in those streets where they think the suspected parties are more likely to walk, believing, that if the thief passes over it, it immediately causes his body to swell, and no medicine can give relief—death alone can end their misery. So terrible to the negroes is the denunciation, “Me tro grabe durtty upon you,” that if possible, they will restore the goods pilfered to the last particle.