Storia do Mogor 265.26.3

265.26.3

[248] There are to be seen commonly in this country a want of the fear of God and of love to one's neighbour. I will relate here some cases which happened in my sight of a diabolic nature. It is a practice very common among the Hindus and others, which does not fail also to lay hold of the Christians living in this country, who from want of true faith allow themselves to be persuaded into such-like errors. A woman wished to become with child, and not succeeding with drugs, had recourse to a magician. His orders were that at midnight she should go and stand below a large forest tree which in India is called badd (bad, bar). It produces a small red fruit. Here she was to perform the sacrifice as to which he had instructed her. She then became pregnant, and the tree referred to became sterile, and never yielded fruit so long as it lived. In Bassahim (Bassein), a town of the Portuguese, there was a well-born woman — I will not mention her name — who wished to have a son to whom to leave her wealth. Secretly she had recourse to a magician, who by diabolic arts made it so appear that she was really pregnant, with all the signs that women have who are about to bring forth. When the time came she was seized with pains, and several ladies came to assist, and she brought forth a tray full of sand ; thereupon the delivery was complete. She lost all the great expenses she had gone to in preparing a feast for the occasion.