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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1898.
apply to most cases of possession both in India and in other countries. In the majority of cases the nervous seizure is neither controlled, brought on, or desired by the patient.
in most parts of the Bombay Presidency, and especially in the Konkan, the common symptoms of spirit-possession are that the patient cries incessantly, weeps, speaks at random, bites his fingers, sways his body to and fro, lots his hair fall loose, spits blood, refuses food for several days, and day by day grows paler and leaner. To some extent in the Dekhan and Gujarat, and to a large extent in the Konkan, all people are at all times liable to spiritattaoks. Cases of spirit-seizures are most common among women, less among children, and Jeast among men. All women are liable to spirit-seizures. They are specially liable during their monthly sickness, in pregnancy, and in child-bed, and barren women at all times. Infants are most liable to be attacked by spirits on the fifth and sixth days after birth. The part most subject to spirit-possession in the Bombay Presidency is the Konkan. In the hilly parts of the
Thânî District, especially in the Jawhar State, cases of spirit-possession are of every day occurrence. In the Kookan, the belief in the frequency of spirit-attacks is very strong among the lower classes of Marathas, Vadvals, Kunbis, Mängellas, Thâkurs, and Kolis. The belief in spirit-seizures is perhaps strongest among the Thâkurs and Kolis ; nearly ninety per cent. of a Koli's ailments are attributed to spirit-attacks. Among middle and higher class Hindus the belief in spirit-seizure is not so strong, and among the Brahmans it is still weaker. Although the percentage of attacks among the Brâhmans and other higher classes is smaller than among the lower classes, when attacks occur the same methods are followed by the higher as by the lower classes. The only difference is, that Brâhmans do not make offerings of fowls, goats, or liquor, or, if they do, it is done secretly through a Kunbi or Maratha. The Kônkan, Lingayats profess not to believe in spirit-seizures, and say that so long as they wear the ling aud bhasma, or cow-dung ashes, spirits dare not attack them. So also the Gujarat Bharvads are, as a class, said to be free from the fear of spirit-seizures.
One great reason why spirits are able to enter into human beings is fear. Fear, says Burton, is the great cause why spectres are seen. A predisposed state of mind occasions fear, and most cases of spirit.possession appear to be due to this state of mind. Thus in the Konkan, there is a belief that the spirit of a husband's first wife invariably comes to trouble his second wife, and this belief is so strongly rooted in the minds of Hindu women of the middle and lower classes, that whenever a woman, whose husband's first wife is dead, sickens, her sickness is attributed to spirit-possession. Captain Mackintosh says, if a Mahadev Koli widowbride sickens, or her husband sickens, it is considered the work of her former husband. Among the Somavansi Kshatris or Chaukalsis of Alibag there is a strong belief, that when a woman marries another husband, her first husband becomes a ghost and troubles her. This fear is so thoroughly rooted in their minds, that whenever & woman of this caste sickens, she attributes her sickness to the ghost of her former husband, called purushavára, and consults an exorcist as to how she can get rid of him. The exorcist gives her some charmed rice, flowers, and basil leaves, and tells her to enclose them in a small copper-box, and to wear the box round her neck. Sometimes the exorcist gives a charmed cocoanat which he tells her to worship daily, and in some cases he tells the woman to make a copper or silver image of the dead, and worship it every day.
40 Or feigned cases no doubt many instances occur in India, and instances are not uncommon in England. Scott (Demonology and Witchcraft, pp. 381 and 335) records one case in 1697 of a girl who was proved to have feigned possession, and in 1704 of a vagabond who affected fits. He potices (Demonology and Witchcroft, p. 388) that a kon of Lord Torpichen, when a boy, feigned fits. He was sent to sea, and tried fits in the navy, but the discipline was too severe. In time he became a good sailor and defended his vessel with great bravery against Angria and his pirates in 1730. The St. James' Gazette of the 23rd February 1883 records the case of a man who made a living in the London streets by feigning fits. • Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 167.
# Trans. By. Geog. Soc. Vol. I. p. 224, 49 Information from Mr. Jankrdan Gopal.
