sneaked out of the house, laughed at by all his former admirers, nor did he call upon me again, till about a fortnight after. [8] A disorder known in India by the name of the Cochin leg. Asiatic Researches, Vol. III. As it sometimes happened, that when the skill of the sorcerers proved ineffective, a missionary had administered some simple medicine, which, by God's blessing, had the desired effect, they looked upon us, as the first of paters, though our medicines consisted in nothing but a little magnesia, spirits of nitre, and a few simples. But what astonished them most, was this, that we could inform them before-hand, by means of a perpetual almanack, that an eclipse of the sun or moon would take place on the very day when it happened. Their notion of the cause of an eclipse is the most preposterous and ridiculous, that ever entered into the head, even of an heathen. They say, that the devil is come to devour the sun or moon, and falls to work to gnaw off the edge; that therefore it is necessary he should be driven away; consequently all the sorcerers or paters assemble, and amidst singular and hideous grimaces, throw up their spears towards the luminary attacked, all the villagers sounding their gonggongs with the greatest violence, to frighten away the voracious invader. After some time, their efforts succeed, and he must betake himself to flight, without effecting his purpose. Though we endeavoured, in every possible way, to explain to them how an eclipse was occasioned, and they seemed in some degree to comprehend it, they only declared us to be the greatest paters that had ever been on the island, but ascribed the deliverance of the sun or moon from the fangs of the devil, solely to the skill and power of their sorcerers, and all we could say to prevail upon them, for once to be quiet, and observe how the luminary would regain its former appearance, by those means which God the Creator Himself had ordained, was in vain.