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SEPTEMBER, 1898.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
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flowers and red powder are put in a bamboo basket, waved round the sufferer, and the basket is carried to a place where four roads meet. (6) The exorcist takes a few grains of udid, 39 charms them by repeating incantations, and throwing them on the body of the sufferer makes the spirit that has seized the patient depart. (7) When the spirit that has seized a person is an angelic spirit, as an Asra, Sathvai, or Navlai, a cotton thread, dyed red and yellow, called a nádapudi, is charmed, fumigated with incense, and tied round the arm of the sufferer. (8) Some exorcists by the power of their charms cause the spirit to come out of the body of the possessed, and to enter a bottle whish, when the spirit has entered it, they close with a cork; the bottle is then buried cork down in a lonely place. (9) Some exorcists draw a figure, and write a mysterious formula on a leaf of the bhurj, or Indian birch tree. The leaf is then dissolved in water, and the water is given to the possessed to drink. (10) In some cases the exorcist takes the possessed person to a large tree; there he pronounces some mystic spells, and thereby forces the devil into the tree, and by driving a nail into the tree fixes the devil therein. (11) When a person is seized by a Brahman's spirit, soine Brålmans are fed and presented with money, and when a person is seized by the archfiend Vetal, the exorcist tells the patient to worship Vetal's stone, and to make him offerings of boiled rice, curds, lime, a cane, betel nuts and leaves, cocoanuts, a garland of ruito flowers and camphor and incense. Among the practices followed by Musalman exorcists are :-(1) The exorcist takes a small circular copper or silver box, and after writing the names of the sufferer and of his mother and the name of Allah or some mysterious figures on a piece of paper he encloses the paper in the box, and ties the box round the neck or arm of the sufferer. (2) The exorcist writes some lines from the Kurán or some mysterious figures, or names of great saints or potent good genii on a paper, which is then made into a circular wick and burned, and the head of the sufferer is held over the fumes of the burning paper. (3) A cotton thread, dyed yellow or red, called nádápudi, is charmed, fumigated over burning incense, and tied round the arm or neck of the sufferer, (4) Some passages are read from the Kuran, when the reading is over, the reader blows his breath on the possessed person, and the devil flees. (5) The name of Allah or figures which are known to possess certain virtues are written on a paper, or on tree bark or on a brass or porcelain plate, or on the blade of a knife; the article on which the name is written is then washed in rose-water, and the water is given to the possessed person to drink,
The Hindu methods of exorcising spirits are believed to be specially fitted for scaring the spirits of deceased Hindus, and the Musalman methods for scaring the spirits of deceased Musalmans. At the same time as a Hindu exorcist can drive away & Musalman ghost and as a Musalman exorcist can drive away a Hindu ghost, both methods are practically considered equally offective. The following details show the procedure adopted by Hindu exorcists in the Konkan, that is, on the mainland near the city of Bombay.
Ganga, the wife of Rama, a Kunbi of Bassein, in Thâná, on the way home from the fields in the evening, is attacked by a spirit. On reaching home she begins to cry, lets her hair fall loose, bites her fingers, spits, and wanders in her speech. Her husband and relations guess that she is possessed. They put tulsi or sweet basil juice into her nostrils, burn hair, frank incense, and sulphur under her nose, and break pieces of garlic root near her ears. Still the spirit does not leave her. On the contrary, Ganga grows more and more excited. Next day Rama calls in Govind, an amateur spirit-scarer, by caste a Vad val and a gardener by calling. Gôvind, accompanied by two of his sáthis, or comrades, comes at about six in the evening, when the power of spirits is at its highest. On entering Râmi's hut he washes his face, hands and feet, and sits on a low wooden stool set in the verandah in & square made by lines of red powder. He is given a pot filled with water, a cocoanut, plantains, rice, betel nuts and leaves, incense, camphor, ashes, flowers, and a garland of ruil bloons, which he lays in a row before him. He then sets upon the rice a betel-nut and betel-leaves, or, if he has brought with him the
# Phaseolus radiatus.
4. Calotropis gigantes.
4 Calotropie gigantea.
