Indian Antiquary Vol 27

SR No.: 032519
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1898.
face with the blood. They have black and white wizards. The white wizards foretell. Among Parsis, if a spirit comes into a man, the priest drives him down right through the body out by the left foot.58
When the Shamanite magician of Siberia performs his superstitions rites, he puts on # garment trimmed with bits of iron, rattles and bells; he cries horribly, beats a sort of drum, agitates himself, and shakes the metallic appendages of his robe, and at the same time the bystanders increase the din by striking with their fiets upon iron kettles. When the exorcist by his horrible contortions and yells, by cutting himself with knives, wbirling, and swooning has succeeded in assuming the appearance of something preternatural, the assembled multitude believe that the demon they worship has taken possession of the priest. When he is enchanted he makes a sign that the spirit has left him, and then imparts to the people the intimation that he has received."
In the ontlying parts of Barma, when the sick cannot be cured, & witch-doctor is called, & rope is tied round the sick man's neck, and jerked, and the spirit is asked why it has entered the man. If an answer is given, and the spirit agrees to pass into some article the object named is placed on the road. If the spirit does not go oat, the man is beaten with a bamboo ; the louder he shrieks the better. If this fails, a woman of the house becomes the spirit's wife, is dressed fantastically, goes into a sbed, music is played, and she dances into an ecstasy. She has the spirit in her, and says where the offerings should be put.co In Burma there are many experts who control evil spirits. A woman wbo dances at feasts, nåt méchamma, is consulted as to where the dead are.cl
In Ceylon, if a person is possessed, a bower of plantain trees is made near the house. In the evening, the patient is seated on an aptarned mortar facing south. Close to bis feet are placed ehickens, cocoanats, rice and limes. The verderale, that is, vaidya or doctor, comes helped by petty conjurers, who beat drums, leap and dance.02 At Gala-kep-pu dewale a village eleven miles from Kandy on the way to Colombo is the temple of Wabaladev. This is the great place for exorcising evil spirits from possessed women. Women are known to be possessed when they dance, sing and shont without cause, tremble and shake and have long fainting fits. Sometimes they run away from their house, use foul language, and bite their flesh and tear their hair. The ordinary demon priest or kattadiya gives relief. In cases where he fails he says the patient should go to Gela-kep-pu. Within two or three miles of the temple the influence or demon in a possessed woman becomes active and she moves on in a borried desperate manner. No one can stop her. At the temple she falls in a corner speechless or in a swoon. In the temple a space is curtained off where the god is. The priest tells the god the woman's story, the woman all the time shaking and shouting. The priest says: - "Demon, will you leave the woman ?" Generally, the demon answers: "I will not." Then the priest beats the woman with a cape. The demon says : -"I will leave her." The woman grows quiet and returns home. Of thirty or forty women so cured none have ever again become possessed.
Among the Chinese the chief Taoist priest, who belongs to a family who have been popes one thousand years, is a great exorcist, and has control over spirits that enter and disease women. When a man is possessed by a spirit in China, Taoist priest is called in. He fires crackers, clashes gongs, and blows a conch. Rich pork, eel, and other food is offered to the spirit. The exorcist then sprinkles tea in a circle, and burns red candles on a table covered with yellow silk,66 Exorcists are common in China. When an exorcist is called to see a case of possession he makes an altar in the house, sets out offerings of pork, fowl and rice, and calls
57 Jour. R. A. Soc. Yol. XIIL P. 416.
* Tylor's Primitice Culture, Vol. L p. 102. Dr. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, Afp-, P. 582. Shway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. 1. p. 136, * Op. cit. Vol. L p. 288
Marshall's Diseases of Ceylon, p. 54. * Journal; Ceylon Royal Asiatic Society, 1865-66, pp. 41-48. # Cobbold's Chinese, p. 78.
• Op. cit. p. 71.