DEVIL -WORSHIP IN MALABAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5567, 16 May 1896, Page 2

DEVIL -WORSHIP IN MALABAR.

(Sfmtras Weekly Mail.)

The great bulk of the people of Malabar are still immersed in the deinpnolatry that is said to have been introdxiced into the country by Sri Parasu Kama. Chief among the powers that extraordinary personage conferred on the Malayalis are the salmantrams and the dwrnantrams, or the good aud the malevolent mantrams. The latter, it is said, were given to a Nauibudri family residing in the vicinity of the celebrated Guruvayur temple in South Malabar. Gradually the gift came to be possessed by other local Brahmins ; then other castes also began to participate in the valuable privilege; and nowadays people resort more largely to the lower caste mantravadis when they need to invoke the low genii in order to wreak evil on their enemies and ill-wishers, Brahmins being invariably very loth to use their power of doing harm in this way. A proficient durmantravadi is the possessor of maiiy evil powers of witchcraft, sorcery and magic, and has at his beck aud call, as it were, a good many low, malevolent imps, such as Chathen, Chamundi, Kodankali, Karinkali, &c, but the ordinary sorcerer is generally possessed of control over the first-named alone, who is, however, as will be seen, sufficiently dangerous and destructive to satisfy the most cruel vengeance-seeker. Chathen, or Kutti-Chathen as he is familiarly called, from the fact that he is said to be, by those privileged to see him, a demon of veiy dwarfish stature, is not easily brought under control. The aspirant for this honour has to undergo a very rigid course of mantrams, based, I believe, on the Shastras, before he attains the coveted condition known as pratiydkschum — the condition, that is, in which his very thought has power to bring Chathen before him to do his bidding.

Certain men possess vaster powers over Chathen than others, and if by some mischance the two sorcerers come in contact, the resalt is deeply interesting 1 . It is related that Kutti-Chathen was once carrying a man across a stream on his back. Beaching 1 mid-strearo, they met a boat in which was a greater one than he who was being carried. And this greater one said to Chathen : — " You fool, why are you so servile as that ?" Whereupon Chathen dropped the lesser master into the stream and let him shift for himself. Again, it is related that, possessing all the spirit of the wild schoolboy, the little demon will, in his master's absence from home, go there and start playing havocby throwing about the cooking pots and chattels, destroying them wantonly. On such occasions someone in the bouse has merely to say : — " Just wait till the master comes, and see if I don't get you in trouble for this"— which is an effectual way of causing the imp to leave off. It is also believed that if this demon, in response to some one's invocation, makes himself obnoxious to the people of a place where there are no magicians of greater power to terminate the nuisance, the victims write or ' go to some other town and arrange to bring some one up ; and should circumstances prevent the mantravadi from going up expeditiously, he .-■writes a note on an olio, (palm leaf) to Chathen briefly setting forth the charge against him and enjoining on him to desist from further mischief until he (the man) cau come up and make the necessary pujah to appease the intruder. This note would have to be taken and placed in some named spot in the haunted house, and as soon as this is done the annoyance ceases. Kutti-Chathen is sometimes enamoured of the fair sex. He will under these circumstances display his preference for the woman in various ways, and she can command him without undergoing any preparatory pujahs.

If she be married, he will use every devilish device to keep husband and wife apart. He may abandon her after a time, but if he stays on and deliverance from his unappreciated amours is desired, some devout Tnantravadi's services are requisitioned. The sanctity of the man should be particularly seen to, for in the event of the exorcising ceremony turning out to be a fiasco, Chathen will surely make himself very unpleasant. He will rub charcoal, with an invisible hand, on the cheek of the woman, or fling stones among the holy pujah substances. Occasionally he will relieve the monotony by precipitating a fresh cat fish (ycta) into the midst of the pujah. Besides, the substances he flings will appear and disappear mysteriously. It may be that, in some cases, our volatile friend chooses of his own accord to desert the woman ; in that event, the chances are pretty equal whether be will go peaceably or do the woman some parting injury. Chathen lias his abode, as a general rule, up either a nux vomica or a tamarind tree in undisturbed possession of which it is very prudent to leave him, for, should the tree be indiscreetly cut down, he will cause no end of misery and dread to the hapless offender.

The outward and visible signs generally employed when Chathen is being exorcised are somewhat thus : — An effigy is made out of a particular kind of wood, mantra,7ns are recited over it, it is then wrapped round in some special kind of cloth and buried in a certain spot. Sometimes a lamp is lit and the devil is as\ed if he will dare to return. Through t«e mouth of a victim he swears on the lamp that he will not. / Sometimes the sanctified effigy, &c, are taken to a Chathen temple and deposited there. When tbe exorcism is from a house, the ceremonies are as above, but when it is from the body of a person, the latter has to give a few hairs of the head. These are hammered with a nail into the effigy and then the ceremony is performed. Bound the reputation of such an adventurous and mischievous god itis no wander that several strange stories have gathered. One story says that Chathen has lost both his thumbs and therefore, though, he' can pick locke, he cannot untie a knot, so, to keep anything safe from his meddlesome fingers, tie it properly. He lost his thumbs this way: — A Nainbudri who had sway over him used to get his help in planting up his rice fields. The Nambudri would stick in a few seedlings at a certain distance from each other, and Chathen would come by night and finish the job. Folks wondered how the Nambudri contrived to get through his transplanting operations so inexpensively and rapidly. A neighbour watched and

saw. the Nambndri planting the samples. Suspecting something out of the way, the neighbour, after the Nambudri had retired, stole into the field and put the seedlings root up. Later on Chathen came, and though he found' the few seedlings funnily set down, he put down the rest after the same fashion. The next morning the Nambndri was in a towering rage, and taking up a chopper he brought it down with force, having the imp's thumbs in mind; Kutti-Chathen from that day to this roams about without his thumbs. And many Malayaliß would be delighted, I fancy, to hear of every limb of his body being chopped off. .