I
judged that the _Mandinga_ was not set for Apollonario, but for the
negress whose business it was to sweep the out-house. I threatened to
confine the suspected woman at Gara unless she discovered the whole
affair. She said the Mandinga was placed there to make one of the
negresses dislike her fellow-slaves, and prefer her to the other. The
ball of _Mandinga_ was formed of five or six kinds of leaves of trees,
among which was the pomegranate leaf; there were likewise two or three
bits of rag, each of a peculiar kind; ashes, which were the bones of
some animals; and there might be other ingredients besides, but these
were what I could recognize. This woman either could not from ignorance,
or would not give any information respecting the several things of which
the ball was composed. I made this serious matter of the _Mandinga_,
from knowing the faith which not only many of the negroes have in it,
but also some of the mulatto people. There is another name for this kind
of charm; it is called _feitico_, and the initiated are called
_feiticeros_; of these there was formerly one at the plantation of St.
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