Note 17 — Chapter V · THE BLACK ART.

At other times the Indian witches appear, dress, talk, and eat like other women, but “when the fit is on them, they are sometimes seen with their eyes glaring red, their hair dishevelled and bristled, while their heads are often turned round in a strange, convulsive manner. On the nights of those days, they are believed to go abroad, and after casting off their garments, to ride about on tigers and other wild animals; and if they desire to go on the water, alligators come like the beasts of the forests at their call, and they disport in rivers and lakes upon their backs till dawn of day, about which period they always return home, and resume their usual forms and occupations.”17