“_Jinns._”—Before referred to, and meaning that which is internal, and
cannot be seen. The word is spelt sometimes Djinns, or Ginns. They are
supposed by some to be deities of the ancient pagans. By the Greeks
believed to be spirits never engaged in matter, nor ever joined to
bodies, subdivided into good and bad, every man having one of each to
attend him at all times.
The Mahomedans believe in several divisions of them, and that they
inhabited the world many thousands of years before Adam. Falling into
corruption, they were consigned to the Mountains of Kâf; the mountains
which in Moslem legends surround the world. They still believe that
they interest themselves in the affairs of men; that, if assuming human
shape their eyes are placed longitudinally in their face. In Arab
mythology Solomon is supposed to have possessed special power over
them. There are forty troops of them, it is stated, with 600,000 in a
troop. Crooke, in referring to them, says, they are believed to have
been resplendently handsome, and sometimes horribly hideous.
They are not confined to any part of the earth in which we live, but
are to be found in every region.
In Hungary, it is said that many years ago the miners were visited by
them in the shape of little negro boys who did no mischief, merely on
occasion blowing out their lamps.
The Malays, who are Mahomedans, have the same beliefs as their
co-religionists in India, their beneficent spirits being styled Dawā,
with supernatural powers.
The Chinese idea of Jinns and Genii, as given by one of their writers,
is that they will live upon air, or even give up breathing the outer
air, and carry on the process of breathing inwardly, as they say, for
days together as in a catalepsy (like an Indian Fakir). They will
become invisible; they will take the form of any bird, beast, fish or
insect; they will mount up above the clouds; dive into the deepest sea;
or burrow into the centre of the earth.
The chief Jinn will command spirits and demons of all sorts and sizes
and hold them at his beck and call. Finally, after living in the world
for perhaps several hundred years, he does not die (for a Jinn or Genii
is immortal, though a spirit may not be so), but he rides up to heaven
on the back of a dragon, where he becomes a ruler of spirits.
The strict “Confucians” deny their existence. One of the most
celebrated of Genii is in Chinese history named “Chang Kwoh,” who
possessed a white mule which could transport him thousands of miles in
a single day, and which when he halted he folded up and hid away in his
wallet.
The Isles of the Genii San Shên Shan were supposed to be pretty much
where “Formosa” actually now exists; vide Deny’s exhaustive work on the
Folk-lore of China.
“_Chuprassies._”—From the Hindustani word “Chuprās,” a buckle or badge
worn to show authority, and generally on a belt over the shoulder.
“_Exorcism._”—The so-called art of Divination, or the foretelling of
events, past and future by other than human means, together with the
conjuring of spirits both good and evil, and the wearing of charms and
amulets as a preservative against evils and witchcraft, have all been
in habitual use from remote ages, and are still resorted to in many
parts of the world.
India is full of it, where the evil spirits are called “Bhût,” and so
is Persia, where necromancers examine for marks and signs the blade
bone of a newly killed sheep, very much as is done in the art of
Palmistry which by marks and signs professes to discover the character
of any person from the palm of his hand.
Exorcism soon followed in the train of most of these superstitions, and
a class of people supposed to be possessed of devils, and called
“energumens,” sought out those who professed to drive them away with a
magical form of words. The Moslems term all these systems of belief
“Kahānah,” or a “causing to tell,” and deem them such as to call for
disapproval, as indeed also do most Christians in these days.
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