produced. This was filled with water and a piece of fair white cotton cloth tied
over the top, making a surface like that of a drum.
“I was asked to write the name of each person present in the house when the
robbery was committed on a small piece of paper, and to fold each paper up so
that all should be alike, and then to place one of the names on the cover of the
vessel. I did so, and the proceedings began by the two men placing each the
middle joint of the fore-finger of his right hand under the rim of the bowl on
opposite sides, and so supporting it about six inches above the floor. The vessel
being large and full of water was heavy, and the men supported the strain by
resting their right elbows on their knees as they sat cross-legged on the floor and
face to face. It was then that I selected one of the folded papers, and placed it on
the cover of the vessel. The Chief read a page of the Korân, and as nothing
happened he said that was not the name of the guilty person, and I changed the
paper for another. This occurred four times, but at the fifth the reading had
scarcely commenced when the bowl began to slowly turn round from left to
right, the supporters letting their hands go round with it, until it twisted itself out
of their fingers and fell on the floor with a considerable bang and a great
spluttering of water through the thin cover. ‘That,’ said the Chief, ‘is the name of
the thief.’
“It was the name of the person already mentioned by him.
“I did not, however, impart that piece of information to the company, but went
on to the end of my papers, nothing more happening.
“I said I should like to try the test again, and as the Chief at once consented we
began afresh, and this time I put the name of the suspected person on first, and
once more the vessel turned round and twisted itself out of the hands of the
holders till it fell on the floor, and I was surprised it did not break. After trying a
few more I said I was satisfied, and the ordeal of the bowl was over. Then the
Chief asked me whose name had been on the vessel when it moved, and I told
him. It was a curious coincidence certainly. I wrote the names in English, which
no one could read; moreover, I was so placed that no one could see what I wrote,
and they none of them attempted to do so. Then the papers were folded up so as
to be all exactly alike; they were shuffled together, and I did not know one from
the other till I looked inside myself. Each time I went from my corner and placed
a name on the vessel already held on the fingers of its supporters. No one except