had committed
suicide; but his relations being aware that, in consequence of this act,
his property, according to law, became forfeited to the Crown, had him
buried secretly in this out-of-the-way spot, and obtained another
corpse, which they put into the coffin in his house. But, several years
after, some persons who were digging at this quiet spot on the canal
bank discovered the real body of Bob--the throat being cut--and the
corpse as fresh as the day on which the act was committed. Bob's
relations, on hearing of this discovery, gave the finders a handsome
gift to rebury the body and keep the matter secret. Within the last ten
years I have heard the same affirmation made respecting persons who have
drowned themselves.

Persons whose _yea_ is unvaryingly _yea_, and whose _nay_ is unvaryingly
_nay_, generally resort to no form of oath or imprecation to gain
credence to their statements, for their truthfulness is seldom called in
question--at least, where they are well known. But with those who are
lax in their statements--who tell the truth or tell lies just as for the
moment the one or the other appears to suit them best--the case is
different. When they speak something strange or important, they find
their veracity questioned, and require to place themselves in
circumstances where it may be thought they are under compulsion, for
their own welfare, to speak the truth. Commonly, they ask Providence to
injure them in some way if in the present instance they have said the
thing which is not true. Well, it was believed in the days of which I
write, and within my own day, that Providence did interfere in this way,
and many stories were current in confirmation of this belief. One such
will suffice as an illustration. A married woman, _enciente_ for the
first time, having had words with her husband about something she denied
having either said or done, wished that, if her statement were untrue,
she might never give birth to the child. She was taken at her word, for
she lived many years in delicate health, but the child was never born.
The villagers who remembered her said that at times she _swelled_ as if
she was about to be confined, and at other times was as _jimp_ as a
young girl.

Akin to belief in the potency of such wishes as were uttered as tests of
truthfulness was doubtless the generally accredited, though of course
seldom witnessed, form of compact with the devil. When a person agreed
to serve the devil, his Sa