Curiosities of Superstition, and Sketches - W. H. Davenport Adams

multiplied it in wood and stone; and the idols thus easily manufactured they call sjadæi, because they wea ...

supposed will of the Tadebtsois: advises how a stray reindeer may be recovered, or the disease of the Samojede ...

At the funeral, and for several years afterwards, the kinsmen sacrifice reindeer over the grave. When a chief ...

some Russian saint; and when they sit down to their meals, the Ostiaks are careful to offer it the dainties ...

Taossi to conjure the spirits to gratify their wishes.” The belief in the efficacy of weather-conjuring prevailed ...

when the Kaan desires to drink, these enchanters by the power of their enchantments cause the c ...

Chandu, or Xanadu, and its palace, suggested to Coleridge one of his most exquisite passages ...

general is much more prominent in Lamaism, or Tibetan Buddhism, than in any other known form of that ...

The commonplace and vulgar exhibition of such exploits as blowing fire, cutting off heads, and swallowing knives, ...

Superstition, like history, repeats itself,—some of the marvels with which the Lama conjurors and the Tart ...

saw at Batavia. Passing over the basket-murder trick, which Houdin and others have made familiar to the E ...

had been spirited into space! The surprising dexterity of these jugglers is emulated by their descendan ...

suddenly transformed into marble. The countenance was perfectly calm, nor did she exhibit the slightest distress ...

various other animals, come forth in due time from this inexhaustible cornucopia. All these exploits ...

CHAPTER IX. SOME AFRICAN SUPERSTITIONS. AFRICA is the land of superstition,—dark, cruel, ghastly supersti ...

“The natives of Equatorial Africa worship also the spirits of their ancestors; a worship for which their minds ...

They have a remarkable ceremony which illustrates the force and vividness of their belief in spirits: When ...

result of demoniac possession. In Africa the sufferer is supposed to be possessed by Mbwiri, and he can be re ...

negotiations were suspended.” The fetich-man seldom finds a native disposed to question his claim to ...

Entering the house, Mr. Reade found him lying on the bamboo bedstead in a state of stupor. The house was th ...