They wear charms and amulets to keep off evil spirits; the charms
are generally pieces of blue string with seven knots in them, which
their witch-finder or Badwa ties, reciting an incantation on each; the
knots were sometimes covered with metal to keep them undefiled and the
charms were tied on at the Holi, Dasahra or some other festival. [340]
In Bombay the Bhils still believe in witches as the agents of any
misfortunes that may befall them. If a man was sick and thought some
woman had bewitched him, the suspected woman was thrown into a stream
or swung from a tree. If the branch broke and the woman fell and
suffered serious injury, or if she could not swim across the stream
and sank, she was considered to be innocent and efforts were made
to save her. But if she escaped without injury she was held to be a
witch, and it frequently happened that the woman would admit herself
to be one either from fear of the infliction of a harder ordeal, or
to keep up the belief in her powers as a witch, which often secured
her a free supper of milk and chickens. She would then admit that
she had really bewitched the sick man and undertake to cure him on
some sacrifice being made. If he recovered, the animal named by the
witch was sacrificed and its blood given her to drink while still
warm; either from fear or in order to keep up the character she would
drink it, and would be permitted to stay on in the village. If, on the
other hand, the sick person died, the witch would often be driven into
the forest to die of hunger or to be devoured by wild animals. [341]
These practices have now disappeared in the Central Provinces, though
occasionally murders of suspected witches may still occur. The Bhils
are firm believers in omens, the nature of which is much the same as
among the Hindus. When a Bhil is persistently unlucky in hunting,
he sometimes says '_Nat laga_,' meaning that some bad spirit is
causing his ill-success. Then he will make an image of a man in
the sand or dust of the road, or sometimes two images of a man and
woman, and throwing straw or grass over the images set it alight, and
pound it down on them with a stick with abusive yells. This he calls
killing his bad luck. [342] Major Hendley notes that the men danced
before the different festivals and before battles. The men danced
in a ring holding sticks and striking them against each other, much
like the Baiga dance. Before battle they had a war-dance in which
the performers were armed and imitated a combat. To be carried on
the shoulders of one of the combatants was a great honour, perhaps
because it symbolised being on horseback. The dance was probably in
the nature of a magical rite, designed to obtain success in battle
by going through an imitation of it beforehand. The priests are the
chief physicians among the Bhils, though most old men were supposed
to know something about medicine. [343]