Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0601
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[Page 601]
497.
Some account of Batavia
[Margin note] Idolatry
from their original Idolatry of which they have some, is certainly the custom of Consecrating Meat, money &c, to the Devil, whoom they call Satan, this is done either in cases of dangerous sickness, when they by these means try to appease the devil who they beleive to be the cause of all sickness, & make him spare the diseasd mans life, or in consequence of Dreams; if any man is restless & dreams much for two or three nights, he immediately Concludes that Satan has taken that method of laying his Commands upon him, which if he neglects to fullfill, he will certainly suffer sickness or death as a punishment for his inattention, consequently he begins to Labour over in his brains, all the circumstances of his dream, & try his utmost to put some explanation or other upon them, in this if he fails, he sends for the Cawin or Preist who assists him to interpret them, Sometimes Satan orders him to do this, or that, or the contrary, but generaly he wants either meat, or money, which is always sent him, & hung up on a little plate made of Cocoa nut leaves on the bough's of trees a tree, near the river,