It has been stated [290] that sorcerers usually unite together to form
a society, which may attain great influence among backward races. In
Southern India there are certain castes which are summed up in the
"Madras Census Report," 1901, as "exorcists and devil-dancers," whose
most important avocation is the practice of magic. Such, for example,
are the Nalkes, Paravas, and Pompadas of South Canara, who are called
in whenever a bhutha (demon) is to be propitiated, and the Panans
and Malayans of Malabar, whose magical rites are described by me in
detail elsewhere. [291]
Concerning sorcery on the west coast, the Travancore Census
Commissioner, 1901, writes as follows:--
"The forms of sorcery familiar to the people of Malabar are of
three kinds:--(1) kaivisham, or poisoning food by incantations; (2)
the employment of Kuttichattan, a mysteriously-working mischievous
imp; (3) setting up spirits to haunt men and their houses, and
cause illness of all kinds. The most mischievous imp in Malabar
demonology is an annoying quip-loving little spirit, as black as
night, and about the size of a well-nourished twelve-year-old
boy. Some people say that they have seen him vis-a-vis, having
a forelock. There are Nambutiris (Brahmans) in Malabar to whom
these are so many missiles, which they may throw at anybody they
choose. They are, like Shakespeare's Ariel, little active bodies,
and most willing slaves of the master under whom they happen
to be placed. Their victims suffer from unbearable agony. Their
clothes take fire; their food turns to ordure; their beverages
become urine; stones fall in showers on all sides of them, but
curiously not on them; and their bed becomes a bed of thorns. With
all this annoying mischief, Kuttichattan or Boy Satan does no
serious harm. He oppresses and harasses, but never injures. A
celebrated Brahman of Changanacheri is said to own more than
a hundred of these Chattans. Household articles and jewelry of
value may be left in the premises of homes guarded by Chattan,
and no thief dares to lay his hand on them. The invisible sentry
keeps diligent watch over his master's property, and has unchecked
powers of movement in any medium. As remuneration for all these
services, the Chattan demands nothing but food, but that in a
large measure. If starved, the Chattans would not hesitate to
remind the master of their power, but, if ordinarily cared for,
they would be his most willing drudges. As a safeguard against the
infinite power secured for the master by Kuttichattan, it is laid
down that malign acts committed through his instrumentality recoil
on the prompter, who dies either childless or after frightful
physical and mental agony. Another method of oppressing humanity,
believed to be in the power of sorcerers, is to make men and women
possessed with spirits. Here, too, women are more subject to their
evil influence than men. Delayed puberty, permanent sterility,
and still-births, are not uncommon ills of a devil-possessed
woman. Sometimes the spirits sought to be exorcised refuse to leave
the victim, unless the sorcerer promises them a habitation in his
own compound (grounds), and arranges for daily offerings being
given. This is agreed to as a matter of unavoidable necessity,
and money and lands are conferred upon the mantravadi Nambutiri
to enable him to fulfil his promise."
Reference has been made (p. 238) to the falling of stones round those
attacked by Chattans. Hysteria, epilepsy, and other disorders, are,
in Malabar, ascribed to possession by devils, who can also cause
cattle disease, accidents, and misfortunes of any kind. Throwing
stones on houses, and setting fire to the thatch, are supposed to be
their ordinary recreations. The mere mention of the name of a certain
Nambutiri family is said to be enough to drive them away. [292] A few
years ago, an old Brahman woman, in the Bellary district, complained to
the police that a Sudra woman living in her neighbourhood, and formerly
employed by her as sweeper, had been throwing stones into her house for
some nights. The woman admitted that she had done so, because she was
advised by a Lingayat priest that the remedy for intermittent fever,
from which she was suffering, was to throw stones at an old woman,
and extract some blood from her body on a new or full-moon day.
Some demons are believed to have human mistresses and concubines, and
it is narrated [293] that a Chetti (merchant) in the Tamil country
purchased a Malabar demon from a magician for ninety rupees. But
hardly a day had passed before the undutiful spirit fell in love with
its new owner's wife, and succeeded in its nefarious purpose.
Quite recently a woman, in order to win the affection of her husband,
gave him a love-charm composed of datura in chutney. The dose proved
fatal, and she was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment. [294]
A love-philtre, said to be composed of the charred remains of a mouse
and spider, was once sent to the chemical examiner to Government
for analysis in a suspected case of poisoning. In connection with
the dugong (Halicore dugong), which is caught in the Gulf of Manaar,
Dr Annandale writes as follows [295]:--
"The presence of large glands in connection with the eye afford
some justification for the Malay's belief that the dugong weeps
when captured. They regard the tears of the ikan dugong (dugong
fish) as a powerful love-charm. Muhammadan fishermen of the Gulf
of Manaar appeared to be ignorant of this usage, but told me that a
'doctor' once went out with them to collect the tears of a dugong,
should they capture one."
Native physicians in the Tamil country are said to prepare an
unguent, into the composition of which the eye of the slender Loris
(Loris gracilis), the brain of the dead offspring of a primipara,
and the catamenial blood of a young virgin, enter, as an effective
preparation in necromancy. The eye of the Loris is also used for
making a preparation, which is believed to enable the possessor to
kidnap and seduce women. The tail of a chamaeleon, secured on a Sunday,
is also believed to be an excellent love-charm.
A young married student at a college in Madras attributed his illness
to the administration by his wife of a love-philtre containing the
brains of a baby which had been exhumed after burial. Among the Tamil
Paraiyans and some other classes, a first-born child, if it is a male,
is buried near or even within the house, so that its corpse may not
be carried away by a sorcerer, to be used in magical rites. [296]
If a first-born child dies, a finger is sometimes cut off, lest a
sorcerer should dig up the body, and extract an essence (karuvu) from
the brain, wherewith to harm his enemies. [297] The Rev. J. Castets
informs me that he once saw a man being initiated into the mysteries
of the magician's art. The apparatus included the top of the skull
of a first-born male child inscribed with Tamil characters.
A station-house police officer informed Mr S. G. Roberts that
first-born children, dying in infancy, are buried near the house,
lest their heads should be used in sorcery, a sort of ink or decoction
(mai) being distilled from them. This ink is used for killing people at
a distance, or for winning a woman's love, or the confidence of those
from whom some favour is required. In the last two cases, the ink is
smeared over the eyebrows. It is believed that, if an infant's head is
used for this purpose, the mother will never have a living child. When
Mr Roberts was at Salem, he had to try a case of this practice, and
the Public Prosecutor informed him that it is believed that, if a hole
is made in the top of the head of the infant when it is buried, it
cannot be effectively used in sorcery. In the Trichinopoly district,
the police brought to Mr Roberts' notice a sorcerer's outfit, which
had been seized. There were the most frightful Tamil curses invoking
devils, written backwards in "looking-glass characters" on an olai
(strip of palm leaf), and a looking-glass to read them by. Spells
written backwards are said to be very potent. There was also a small
round tin, containing a black treacly paste with a sort of shine
on it, which was said to have been obtained from the head of a dead
child. There is a Tamil proverb "Kuzhi pillai, madi pillai," meaning
grave child, lap child, in reference to a belief that, the quicker
a first-born child is buried, the quicker is the next child conceived.
The following form of sorcery in Malabar is described by Mr
Walhouse. [298]
"Let a sorcerer obtain the corpse of a maiden, and on a Saturday
night place it at the foot of a bhuta-haunted tree on an altar,
and repeat a hundred times: Om! Hrim! Hrom! O goddess of Malayala
who possessest us in a moment! Come! Come! The corpse will then be
inspired by a demon, and rise up; and, if the demon be appeased
with flesh and arrack (liquor), it will answer all questions put
to it."
A human bone from a burial-ground, over which powerful mantrams
have been recited, if thrown into an enemy's house, will cause his
ruin. Ashes from the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling
on a Saturday or Sunday, if thrown into the house of an enemy, are
said to produce severe illness, if the house is not vacated.