The inhabitants of the Nicobar islands believe, that all dangerous diseases proceed from the devil, who is nevertheless under the controul of their sorcerers, or _Paters_[7]. If, therefore, these men cannot cure a disorder by their tricks and inchantments, by which they pretend to catch the devil and drive him off the place, then they are sure, that he has entered into some man or woman, sitting in his or her house, and by witchcraft, sucking all the power of healing out of the patient's body. The sorcerer then proceeds to discover the witch, and finds no difficulty in fixing upon some one he hates. The word of such a wise man is, of course, taken by all for the voice of truth, and the poor person accused is murdered without further inquiry. Murders of this kind occurred but seldom in our neighbourhood, but were said to be more frequent in some of the other islands. We told them, that the devil everywhere proved himself the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning; and, till they turned to the true God, they were Satan's slaves, and his works they must do. They seem indeed to be continually engaged with him, whenever they profess to perform any religious rite. They even ascribe the creation of the world to the _Eewee_, or wicked agent. If they do any thing wrong, or commit any atrocious crime, and are reproved for it, they immediately answer: "It was not me, it was the devil that did it." If you convince them, that they did it themselves, and with their own hands, their usual phrase is, "The _Eewee_ did not make me perfect, or better;" and therefore they cannot help some times doing what is wrong. They speak of a great many sorts of devils, but all malicious, and disposed to hurt them, if they had not such great and powerful paters among them, who had a superior power, and could catch, and bring them into subjection. It is not difficult for the sorcerers thus to impose upon the poor ignorant people, for they really do possess superior cunning, and astonishing dexterity, being the most expert jugglers on earth. Every one who has visited the East Indies, well knows, with what unaccountable exhibitions and slight of hand tricks the jugglers endeavour to amuse the people; but in the Nicobar islands, these arts being applied to what they consider as religious exercises, the deception is so great, that I have myself often stood astonished, being unable to account for what I saw. [7] An appellation borrowed from the Portuguese Missionaries.