DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0255
'Demon-worship and Spirit-worship.. 243.
limbs of the person possessed, and impel him to frantic
movements, in which all devils take particular delight.
Occasionally they may take the shape or character of a
dog, cat, serpent, or other animal. It is fully believed that
if a person happens to be possessed by a dog-demon he will
take to barking like a dog.
With regard to so-called worship I need scarcely repeat that
there is no real worship. Nor has any demon—not even one
of the highest class — any imposing temple-like structure
erected to him. Often a mere heap of earth piled up in
pyramidal shape near some tree, or a similar erection formed
with bricks and painted with streaks of white, constitutes the
only shrine, while another heap in front with a flat surface
does duty for the altar. Sometimes the whole is covered
with a wooden roof supported on rough columns. There is
rarely any idol; though sometimes, if the demon's origin be
traceable to the ghost of some high personage, whose elevation
of rank or office made him during lifetime formidable to his
followers, he may be represented by a rude image of some of
the terrible forms of Siva. No real prayers are said at such
shrines, though incantations may be recited. The propitia-
tion consists in offerings of food, as mentioned in the preceding
chapter (p. 221), and in various ceremonies which differ in
different localities.
A spirit of one of these classes highly reverenced and very
commonly propitiated by villagers in some parts of India
is one popularly called Bhumya, or the ' earth-spirit.' He is
supposed to be the spirit of the founder of the village. If
a village is deserted by its inhabitants, no new colony of
people will dare to settle there without going through a
careful process of propitiating the earth-spirit, who never,
under any circumstances, quits his old haunts.
Another class consists of the spirits of young men who
have died without becoming fathers. These wander about
in a restless miserable manner, like people burdened with
R 2
limbs of the person possessed, and impel him to frantic
movements, in which all devils take particular delight.
Occasionally they may take the shape or character of a
dog, cat, serpent, or other animal. It is fully believed that
if a person happens to be possessed by a dog-demon he will
take to barking like a dog.
With regard to so-called worship I need scarcely repeat that
there is no real worship. Nor has any demon—not even one
of the highest class — any imposing temple-like structure
erected to him. Often a mere heap of earth piled up in
pyramidal shape near some tree, or a similar erection formed
with bricks and painted with streaks of white, constitutes the
only shrine, while another heap in front with a flat surface
does duty for the altar. Sometimes the whole is covered
with a wooden roof supported on rough columns. There is
rarely any idol; though sometimes, if the demon's origin be
traceable to the ghost of some high personage, whose elevation
of rank or office made him during lifetime formidable to his
followers, he may be represented by a rude image of some of
the terrible forms of Siva. No real prayers are said at such
shrines, though incantations may be recited. The propitia-
tion consists in offerings of food, as mentioned in the preceding
chapter (p. 221), and in various ceremonies which differ in
different localities.
A spirit of one of these classes highly reverenced and very
commonly propitiated by villagers in some parts of India
is one popularly called Bhumya, or the ' earth-spirit.' He is
supposed to be the spirit of the founder of the village. If
a village is deserted by its inhabitants, no new colony of
people will dare to settle there without going through a
careful process of propitiating the earth-spirit, who never,
under any circumstances, quits his old haunts.
Another class consists of the spirits of young men who
have died without becoming fathers. These wander about
in a restless miserable manner, like people burdened with
R 2