Whenever one of the gang was wounded and was taken with his wounds
bleeding near a place haunted by a spirit, they believed the spirit
got angry and took hold of him, [62] in the manner described by
Ajit Singh as follows: "The spirit comes upon him in all kinds of
shapes, sometimes in that of a buffalo, at others in that of a woman,
sometimes in the air above and sometimes from the ground below; but no
one can see him except the wounded person he is angry with and wants
to punish. Upon such a wounded person we always place a naked sword
or some other sharp steel instrument, as spirits are much afraid of
weapons of this kind. If there be any good conjurer at hand to charm
away the spirits from the person wounded he recovers, but nothing else
can save him." In one case a dacoit named Ghisa had been severely
wounded in an encounter and was seized by the spirit of a banyan
tree as he was being taken away: "We made a litter with our ropes
and cloaks thrown over them and on this he was carried off by four
of our party; at half a mile distant the road passed under a large
banyan tree and as the four men carried him along under the tree,
the spirit of the place fell upon him and the four men who carried
him fell down with the shock. They could not raise him again, so much
were they frightened, and four other men were obliged to lift him and
carry him off." The man died of his wounds soon after they reached
the halting-place, and in commenting on this Ajit Singh continued:
"When the spirit seized Ghisa under the tree we had unfortunately no
conjurer, and he, poor fellow, died in consequence. It was evident that
a spirit had got hold of him, for he could not keep his head upright;
it always fell down upon his right or left shoulder as often as we
tried to put it right; and he complained much of a pain in the region
of the liver. We therefore concluded that the spirit had broken his
neck and was consuming his liver."