t the Government were looking for "heads" to put into
the trench, and the alarm for days was so great that people would not
pass along Thompson's Road adjoining the reservoir after dark; and even
the "dhobies," or washer-men, in the stream adjoining the puddle trench,
hastened into town before dusk. Similar so called "head scares" have
occurred in Singapore up to even the present time. It is not easy to
define what has led to this superstition in the native mind, and it is
made more complicated from the fact that it is shared alike by Chinese
and natives of India. In many of the Polynesian Islands the practice of
human sacrifices we know exists even in our own days, and that chiefs,
when they build a house or a war-canoe, offer up a human being; and the
Polynesians and Indonesians resemble one another very closely. But such
a superstition has not come to us through the Malay race, and we must
rather seek for its origin from the Aryan Hindus of India; and as the
Chinese took most of their tradition and folk-lore from the cradle of
the Aryan races, the belief might thus be common to both peoples.[7] The
Rev. Mr. Ward, writing early in this century, refers to the human
sacrifices at Bardwan, in Bengal, and says of them: "The discovery of
murders in the name of religion was made by finding bodies with the
heads cut off, and placed near the images of 'Durga' and 'Kali.'" Also
at Serampur, before the temple of the goddess "Jara," a human body was
found without a head. Whatever the origin of the superstition may be
traced to, the municipality at Singapore were wisely advised, and we
think very properly declined to take any notice of the recent "head
scare" of this year, and we can only hope that these apprehensions will
gradually cease to stir the minds of the people as they become more
instructed and advanced in civilization.

[Footnote 7: The old mystic symbol of the Swastika of India,
for instance, [Illustration: A clockwise Swastika] is common
amongst the Mongolian races, and other signs of an early union
between these races might be given.]

Among the many works of utility carried on by convict labour during the
tenure of the office of Superintendent of Convicts by Captain Man was
the widening and improving of the Bukit Timah Canal, in order to drain
the adjacent low lands, and render them capable for cultivation by
market gardeners. In the cutting of these artificial channels the
convicts from India had