Mine of
Treasure, who being overheard relating it, Domo, Alvares, and some
others went to the place and sacrificed a Cock and dugg the ground but
found nothing. They go to Bundarra at Salsett, where disagreeing, the
Government there takes notice of the same, and one of them, an
inhabitant of Bombay, is sent to the Inquisition at Goa, which
proceedings will discourage the Inhabitants. Wherefore the General is
desired to issue a proclamation to release him, and if not restored in
twenty days, no Roman Catholick Worship to be allowed on the Island."

A more recent chronicler, writing in _The Ceylon Times_, had this to
say:

"It is the belief of all Orientals that hidden treasures are under the
guardianship of supernatural beings. The Cingalese divide the charge
between the demons and the cobra da capello (guardian of the king's
ankus in Kipling's story). Various charms are resorted to by those who
wish to gain the treasure because the demons require a sacrifice. The
blood of a human being is the most important, but so far as is known,
the Cappowas have hitherto confined themselves to the sacrifice of a
white cock, combining its blood with their own drawn from the hand or
foot."

No more fantastic than this are the legends of which the British Isles
yield a plentiful harvest. Thomas of Walsingham tells the tale of a
Saracen physician who betook himself to Earl Warren of the fourteenth
century to ask courteous permission that he might slay a dragon, or
"loathly worm" which had its den at Bromfield near Ludlow and had
wrought sad ravages on the Earl's lands. The Saracen overcame the
monster, whether by means of his medicine chest or his trusty steel the
narrator sayeth not, and then it was learned that a great hoard of gold
was hidden in its foul den. Some men of Herefordshire sallied forth by
night to search for the treasure, and were about to lay hands on it
when retainers of the Earl of Warwick captured them and took the booty
to their lord.

Blenkinsopp Castle is haunted by a very sorrowful White Lady. Her
husband, Bryan de Blenkinsopp, was uncommonly greedy of gold, which he
loved better than his wife, and she, being very jealous and angry, was
mad enough to hide from him a chest of treasure so heavy that twelve
strong men were needed to lift it. Later she was overtaken by remorse
because of this undutiful behavior and to this day her uneasy ghost
flits about the castle, supposedly seeking the spirit of B