Indian Antiquary Vol 28

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 93

MARCH, 1899.]
WITCHCRAFT IN ANCIENT INDIA.
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the charms and rites concerned with the protection of mother and child against the attacks of evil spirits. Fire, as already mentioned, is the most powerful weapon against the demons. Hence it is that tribes of the Malay Peninsula light fires near & mother at childbirth, to scare away the evil spirits; and the people of the Hebrides, to protect the mother and child from evil spirits, carry Gre round them. The law of the Parsis ("Sad Dar," ch. 16) requires that, when a woman becomes pregnant in a house, it is necessary to make an endeavour so that there may be a continual fire in that house, and to maintain a good watch over it. And, when the child becomes separate from the mother, it is necessary to burn a lamp for three nights and days - if they burn a fire it would be better - 80 that the demons and fiends may not be able to do any damage and harm... During forty days it is not proper that they should leave the child alone ; and it is also not proper that the mother of the infant should put her foot over a threshold in the dwelling, or cast her eyes upon a hill.” The threshold is, like the cross-roads, a favourite haunt of the evil spirits. Hence a bride, also, is forbidden - in India as well as in ancient Rome - to tread upon a threshold. The demons are naturally as opposed to marriage as they are to childbirth, and at all marriage ceremonies great care has to be taken to protect the bridal pair, especially the bride, from attacks of the demons. Hence the burning of lamps at Chinese weddings, and perhaps the carrying of fire behind the bridal procession in ancient India. The law of the Parsis has its exact counterpart in Scandinavia, where, until a child is baptized, the fire must never be let out, lest the trolls should be able to steal the infant, and a live coal must be cast after the mother as she goes to be churched (Tylor, Vol. II. p. 195). The custom of keeping a light burning in the lying-in room is still practiced in Germany, as it was in ancient Rome. In ancient India the rule was to keep a fire burning near the door of the lying-in room in which mustard seeds and rice-chaff were sacrificed every morning and evening for ten days. Visitors, too, were requested to throw mustard seeds and rice-chaff into the fire, before entering the room.
Among the rites performed for the welfare of the new-born infant is the first feeding. The child is made to taste honey and milk from a golden spoon. Gold was frequently used at auspicions rites by the ancient Hindus, and was also worn as an amulet for long life. "The gold which is born from fire, the immortal, they bestowed upon the mortals. He who knows this deserves it ; of old age dies he who wears it." It seems to me highly probable that the auspiciousness of gold is due to its supposed origin from fire. "The seed of Agni" (Fire) is a frequent designation of gold. As fire could not be worn as an amulet, gold was used instead.
The first name given to a child is to be kept secret. Only the parents may koow it. For according to Hinda notions, demons and wizards have no power over a person unless they know his name. This custom of concealing the baptismal name is also found among other peoples, e. 9., the Abyssinians.
The chapter of children's diseases is as large in medical witchcraft as in modern medical science, and in the Hindu charms we find numerous names of demons to whom the various diseases of children are ascribed. One of these demons is called the "Dog-demon," and is said to represent epilepsy (though the barking dog would remind us rather of whooping cough). When a boy was attacked by the dog-demon, he was first covered with a net, and a gong was beaten or a bell rung. Then the boy was brought into a gambling-hall, - not, however, by the door, but by an opening made in the roof, - the hell was sprinkled with water, the dice cast, the boy laid on his back on the dice, and a mixture of cards and salt poured over him, while again & yong was beaten. The cards and salt were poured on the boy, while a charm was recited which is only partly intelligible : " Kůrkura, Sukůrkura, Kúrkura who binds the boys.... O finehaired doggy, let him loose, let him loose, chat!... go away, dog ... let the dog eat a dog, uot a human being, chat!..." To drive evil demons away by means of loud noises, such as the beating of a gong, was a device frequently resorted to in ancient Hindu rites; and as Mr. Crooke ("Folklore of Northern India," i. 168) tells us, bells and drums are still used in India as scarers of demons. "So, the Patéri priest in Mirzapur and many classes