Note 16 — Chapter XLIII

451. In order to discover any theft, they generally burn fresh rock-alum, and after it has vaporized and then crystallized they say that the figure which those crystals form is the living picture of So-and-so, and that he is the author of the theft. Since they believe such nonsense as easily as it is difficult to make them believe the divine mysteries, they all agree to that statement, even though the face should be that of a dog; and they make a charge in court against So-and-so, and impute the theft to him. Sometimes they take a screen or sieve (which they call bilào), in which they fasten some scissors in form of a cross, to which a rosary is hung. Then they proceed to call the name of each one who is present at this exercise. If the bilào shakes when the name of Pedro is called, then that poor Pedro is the robber, and pays for the theft, without having perhaps eaten or drunk of it.16 Sometimes they light a candle to the saint of miracles, my St. Anthony of Padua, misapplying his peculiar protection for all lost things; they believe that if the flame of the candle should flare up in the direction of any of those present at this act, he is thus shown to be the robber. For these and like deceitful artifices, there are not wanting masters, Indian impostors, both men and women, who, in order to gain money, deceive the simple-minded in this manner, without paying any heed to the claims of conscience in these wrongs.