DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0257
Demon-worship and Spirit-worship. 245
every part of India. In fact, so deep-seated and ineradicable
is the fear of evil spirits in the minds of the lower orders, that
in many villages of India the doors of the houses are never
allowed to face the South, lest the entrance of some dreaded
demon should be facilitated. Perhaps, however, the true
devil-region is the extreme Southern peninsula, near the
Island of Ceylon. The nearer indeed we approach that
island, the more do we find the people (like the Shanars of
Tinnevelly) steeped in demonolatry and saturated with every
form of superstitious fear of evil spirits, ghosts, and goblins.
Every village has its own peculiar devil or devils, to the
attacks of which it is constantly in imagination exposed.
Happily every village has also, as we have already pointed out,
its own tutelary deities. Curiously, too, many good spirits
are believed to be equestrian in their tastes. Possibly the
villagers suppose that by turning them into a kind of cavalry
regiment they give them an advantage over their impish op-
ponents, who prowl about on foot, and sneak into the village
domain at unguarded corners.
Certain it is that to propitiate these tutelary divinities the
villagers set up horses of baked clay in their fields—often as large
as life, and generally ten or twenty in a row or in a semicircle
round a shrine—and present them as offerings to the good
divinity of the shrine, in token of gratitude for deliverances.
They are especially presented—though not without other
oblations—to the male guardian God Ayenar (see p. 219),
who is believed to be a daring horseman capable of clearing
hedges and ditches and riding down the most active demon-
antagonist.
As to the female tutelary deities called Mothers (see p. 323),
we have already seen that if not propitiated by constant
offerings, and especially with blood, they will themselves
assume the personality of the very demon dreaded by the
villagers, and inflict the very plague from which they usually
protect them.
every part of India. In fact, so deep-seated and ineradicable
is the fear of evil spirits in the minds of the lower orders, that
in many villages of India the doors of the houses are never
allowed to face the South, lest the entrance of some dreaded
demon should be facilitated. Perhaps, however, the true
devil-region is the extreme Southern peninsula, near the
Island of Ceylon. The nearer indeed we approach that
island, the more do we find the people (like the Shanars of
Tinnevelly) steeped in demonolatry and saturated with every
form of superstitious fear of evil spirits, ghosts, and goblins.
Every village has its own peculiar devil or devils, to the
attacks of which it is constantly in imagination exposed.
Happily every village has also, as we have already pointed out,
its own tutelary deities. Curiously, too, many good spirits
are believed to be equestrian in their tastes. Possibly the
villagers suppose that by turning them into a kind of cavalry
regiment they give them an advantage over their impish op-
ponents, who prowl about on foot, and sneak into the village
domain at unguarded corners.
Certain it is that to propitiate these tutelary divinities the
villagers set up horses of baked clay in their fields—often as large
as life, and generally ten or twenty in a row or in a semicircle
round a shrine—and present them as offerings to the good
divinity of the shrine, in token of gratitude for deliverances.
They are especially presented—though not without other
oblations—to the male guardian God Ayenar (see p. 219),
who is believed to be a daring horseman capable of clearing
hedges and ditches and riding down the most active demon-
antagonist.
As to the female tutelary deities called Mothers (see p. 323),
we have already seen that if not propitiated by constant
offerings, and especially with blood, they will themselves
assume the personality of the very demon dreaded by the
villagers, and inflict the very plague from which they usually
protect them.