WITCH-FINDING IN INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7222, 10 January 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

WITCH-FINDING IN INDIA.

The ordeal by water is universal among the barbarous non-Aryan tribes of Central India, from the Bheels in the west country to the wild men of the almost unexplored jungles of Bustar and the far east, toward the bay of Bengal. Here is a description of one water test, taken a few years ago from the mouth of an expert witch-finder among the Bheels, who got into a scrape for applying it to an old woman : — "A bamboo is stuck upintheiniddle of any piece of water. he accused is taken to it, lays hold of it, and descends by it to the bottom. In the meantime one of the villagers shoots an arrow from his bow, and another runs to pick it up and bring it back to the place whence it was shot. If the woman is able to remain under water until this is done she iB declared innocent, but if she comes up to breathe before the arrow is returned into the woman's hand she is a true witch, and must be swung as such." In the case from which this account is taken the woman failed in this test, and was consequently swung to and fro, roped up to a tree with a bandage of red pepper on her eyes. But it ia obvious that this kind of ordeal, like almost all primitive ordeals, is contrived so as to depend for its effect much upon the manner in which it is conducted, whereby the operator's favour becomes worth gaining. A skilful archer wi l shoot just as far as he chooses. Ordeal by water is the question ordinary, which may probably be constructed as an enquiry whether the water fetish or water spirits will accept or reject the witch ; whether he is on her side or against her : and this seems to be the best general explanation of the worldwide custom. Another ordeal is by heat, as, for instance, the picking of a coin out of burning oil. But the question extraordinary is by swinging on a sacred tree, or by Hogging with switches of a particular wood. Swinging before an idol, with a hook through the muscles of the back, is the well-known rite by which a Hindoo devotes himself to the god, and flagging with rods from a sacred tree manifestly adds superhuman virtue to the ordinary effect of a vigorous laying on. In ISGSa woman suspected of bringing cholera into the village, was deliberately beaten to death with rods of the castor oil tree, which is excellent for purgir.g witchcraft. It is usual, abo, to knock out the front teeth of a notorious witch ; the practice appears to be connected with the belief, well known in all countries, that witches assume animal shapes, for in India they are supposed to transform themselves into wild beasts—a superstition analogous to our European lycanthropy. A good many years ago there was an old nun practising as a physician near Sringar, in the Himalayas, who was notorious as a sorcerer, insomuch that his reputation of having devoured many persons, under the form of a tiger, cost him most of his teeth, which were extracted by the B,ajah who held that country, so as to render him less formidable during his constant metamorphoses. Shaving the heads of witches is very common among the tribes much infested by sorcerers. It is employed as an antidote, not merely as a degrading punishment, so that one is tempted to trace its origin to some recondite notion of power residing in the hair, and thus even back toward Samson, to Circe, with the beautiful locks, and to the familiar devils of early Christian times, who are said to have had a peculiar attachment for women with fine tresses.