________________
222
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1898.
pur, if they are troubled with sickness, think it is caused by an angry ancestral spirit entering the body, and to please the ghost they set his image among the house gods, and worship it. Gujarat Musalmans believe that when a young grown-up girl gets an attack of hysteria it is because she has a jinn, or spirit-lover, who has possessed her.18 Spirit-possession causes sulkiness. Among Gujarat Musalmâns, if a woman is sulky or in a fit, the husband says: "Don't speak; the devil is on her."19 In Mysore, epilepsy is believed to be the effect of spirit-seizure : Buchanan20 says one night hearing a great noise, next morning I made enquiries, and found that one of the cattle-drivers had been possessed by a devil or pisách, and had been senseless and foaming at the mouth. The whole people, Musalmâns and Hindus, met, and in the hope of frightening the devil made all the noise they could. But they could not get him to leave, till a Brahman threw ashes on the man and said prayers. In fact, it was epilepsy brought on by intoxication. Among the Shânârs of Tinnevelly, if a man feels the beginning of an ague fit, or the dizziness of a bilious headache, he thinks himself possessed.21 The Kirghiz. of Central Asia hold that a woman in child-bed suffering from an involuntary muscular contraction, is the effect of posse sion.23 An Arab in delirium is possessed: so the Samoans, Tongons, Sumatrans, all think that madness is possession. In Syria, madness is thought to be inspiration. Among the Jews madness was originally thought to be ghost-possession. The Chinese believe that diseases are caused by the unfriendly spirits of dead ancestors, who, having no posterity to offer sacrifices, and yet having the same need of food, possess or prey ou the living.24 The Hottentots believe that all disease comes from Gauna, their devil-guardian, and his servant.25 Barrenness is caused by spirit-possession, and so Hottentot girls who have just come of age run naked in the first thunderstorm that they may be fruitful.20 In Africa, the effects, or rather symptoms, of spirit-possession are hysteria, lethargy, insensibility to pain, and madness; these symptoms are believed to be the work of Buders or wizards.27 In the Kongo, in West Africa, epilepsy is possession, and the possessor is the ancestral spirit.23 The Abyssinians hold that women are oftener possessed than men.29 The Uanpes think death can hardly occur naturally. The Coast negroes think neither death nor disease is natural. American Indians think that death is caused by witchcraft.30 The belief in spirit-possession and in the spirit theory of disease is still common in rural England. Fits, the falling sickness, ague, cramp and warts are all believed to be caused by a spirit entering the patient's body. These diseases are cured, that is, the spirit who causes the disease is scared, by a charm. In the charm the disease is addressed as a spirit or being. In ague the charm runs : "Aguc, farewell till we meet in hell." Cramp is addressed: " Cramp, be thou faultless, as our Lady was sinless when she bore Jesus."31 In Lancashire, the people think casting out the ague is the same as casting out the devil, for it is the devil in the sick man that makes him shiver and shake.33 Warts are cured by rubbing them with a green elder stick and burying the stick till it rots.33 In certain parts of England fits and hiccough are still believed to be possessions, and are cured by charms. Unmarried country girls in England, when they have no lover, perform many curious rites. The object of the rites is apparently to get rid of a fairy lover who the girl thinks has possessed her, and, to keep her for himself, has thrown over her some spell which makes her unlovely in men's eyes. For this reason she performs various rites to get rid of the fairy lover. In Yorkshire, on St. Agnes' Eve, girls keep a fast, and eat a small
cake, flour, sal and water, without speaking,35
18 Information from Mr. Fazal Latfullah.
20 Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. II. p. 45.
22 Spencer's Principles of Sociology, Vol. I. p. 215.
24 Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. II. p. 21.
20 Op. cit. p. 87.
28 Spencer's Principles of Sociology, Vol. I. p. 213.
so Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 250.
82 Op. cit. p. 163.
24 Op. cit. pp. 115-119.
19 Information from Mr. Fazal Latfullah.
21 Caldwell in Balfour's Encyclopædia.
25 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 248.
28 Hahn's Tauni Goam, p. 37.
27 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. I. p. 311.
29 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 241.
51 Dyer's Folk-Lore, pp. 158, 161.
35 Op. cit. p. 165.
35 Henderson's Fekl-Lore, p. 91.
