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DECEMBER, 1894.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
of East Africa believe that many diseases are caused by evil spirits, or pepo, who get into the body, and must be driven out.93
379
As men advanced in knowledge and power, the assumption that all diseases or most diseases, are caused by spirits was narrowed into the belief that some diseases, or certain diseases, are caused by spirits. The diseases thus attributed to spirits were sudden sicknesses, seizures, fainting, mania, rheumatism, small-pox, barrenness, cholera, and other epidemics. In the Kônkan the lower and middle classes, and to some extent even the higher classes, believe all these diseases to be due to the influence of spirits.
The following examples shew, too, how widely the belief that spirits cause disease is, or has been, entertained. In North Kanara, thirty miles up the Kârwâr river, a place named Kadêrî, when Dr. Buchanan visited it (1792), had for many years been troubled by a curious sickness. The people, who were Brahmans, thought the epidemic was the work of an enraged bhút or spirit.93 The Komarpaiks, a class of North Kanara husbandmen, believe that the spirits of children, whose mothers die in pregnancy, become bhuts or devils, and enter into people and cause sickness. The sufferers attempt to be relieved by prayer and sacrifice, and some villages are supposed to know charms which drive the spirits away. In the Deccan, when a Chitpâvan woman suffers greatly in child-birth, a priest is called who reads the passages from the Veds and Puráns which drive away evil spirits. In Bengal, whenever a woman is seized with a sudden sickness she is supposed to be witch-ridden. The Brinjârts of Mysore in 1792 claimed the right to put witches to death, because all sickness among children was due to witchcraft.97 The Coorgs believe that diseases of men and cattle rarely come in the natural order of things, but are due either to magic or to an enemy.99 In Mysore, an acute conical mound of mud, on a round base, ornamented with wild flowers is set up to keep off cattle-disease. It is called Kâtama Râya. In Mysore men are possessed and bewitched by spirits, who lodge in trees and burial-grounds.100 Among the Kols of the Central Provinces when any one falls ill, the ancestors are propitiated. The early Brahmans in India were always troubled by spirits and demons. In Mysore and North Tulu, if the worship of Bhûtâ is neglected, he is supposed to cause sickness and suffering. If a sacrifice is made to Bhûtâ he takes the spirit or life of the sacrifice, and gives no more trouble. Children get epileptic fits from 'Siva. Sneezing is due to spirit-possession. The Pârsts say a prayer when they
sneeze,
The Circassians believe that diseases are caused by spirits. In Egypt, Mr. Douglas has seen barren women pass under the belly of an elephant, to drive out the haunting spirit of barrenness.7 The Jews held that madness was the work of a spirit, and at the time of Christ spirits were believed to cause madness, fits, and other forms of disease."
The Burmans believe that witches, called sons, kill people and give epileptic fits, and that some diseases are caused by bones and other things being forced into the body by witches.10 Epidemics are specially believed to be due to spirits. In Burma, when cholera appears in a village, the people climb on to the roofs of the houses and beat them with bamboos and billets of wood. Sometimes, when a person is sick, a small coffin and a tiny corpse are buried, and the
92 News East Africa, p. 68.
93 Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. III. p. 188. [See also in this Journal, "Devil Worship of the Tuluvas," passim.-ED.] 24 Op. cit. p. 185.
Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 112.
96 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. III. p. 210.
97 Wilk's South of India, Vol. III. p. 211.
98 Rice's Mysore, Vol. III. p. 211.
1 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 33.
Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 366. 100 Op. cit., loc. cit. Maurice's Indian Antiquities, Vol. IV. p. 662. 4 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. I. p. 234. Balfour's Encyc. Vol. V. p. 581.
3 Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. III. p. 107. Dabistan, Vol. I. p. 818.
From MS. notes. Compare:-In Gujarat, when an ascetio of the Dundiâ sect dies, women who seek the blessing of a male child strive to secure it by creeping beneath his litter (Forbes' Rds Mala, Vol. II. p. 332). 8 From MS. notes. Shway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. II. p. 126. 11 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 104.
10 Fytche's Burma, Vol. II. p. 80.
