DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0258
246 Demon-worship and Spirit-worship.
The most terrible and implacable of all demons are those
created by Europeans. Of course the propitiating process
must vary according to the character of the man whose
demonized spirit is to be coaxed into good-humour. His
tastes and idiosyncrasies during life must be carefully inquired
into and judiciously indulged. The story is told of a certain
choleric Englishman who was a terror to the inhabitants of a
district in the South of India, and whose ghost after his death
had to be constantly appeased by offerings of good cooked
meat, brandy, soda-water, and cigars placed daily on his
tomb. The same was done to secure the continued good-will
of a philanthropic sportsman, who when he was alive delivered
a large tract of country from the ravages of tigers.
And here we may note other methods of neutralizing the
evil influences of demons prevalent in Southern India. Male
and female devils are supposed to delight in dancing, particu-
larly when accompanied with wild cries, violent gesticulations,
ringing of bells, and noisy discordant music. Hence it happens
that, when pestilence is rife in any district, professional exer-
cisers, or certain persons selected for the purpose, paint their
faces, put on hideous masks, dress up in fantastic garments,
arm themselves with strange weapons, and commence dancing.
Their object is to personate particular devils, or rather per-
haps to induce such devils to leave the persons of their victims
and to occupy the persons of the dancers, who shriek, fling
themselves about, and work themselves up into a phrenzy of
excitement, amid beating of tom-toms, blowing of horns, and
ringing of bells. When the dancers are thoroughly exhausted
by their gesticulations they sink down in a kind of trance, and
are then believed to be actually possessed by the spirit of the
demon and are turned for a time into demon-mediums, gifted
with clairvoyance and a power of delivering prophetic utter-
ances. The spectators ask them questions about missing
relatives or future events, and their deliverances are supposed
to be oracular.
The most terrible and implacable of all demons are those
created by Europeans. Of course the propitiating process
must vary according to the character of the man whose
demonized spirit is to be coaxed into good-humour. His
tastes and idiosyncrasies during life must be carefully inquired
into and judiciously indulged. The story is told of a certain
choleric Englishman who was a terror to the inhabitants of a
district in the South of India, and whose ghost after his death
had to be constantly appeased by offerings of good cooked
meat, brandy, soda-water, and cigars placed daily on his
tomb. The same was done to secure the continued good-will
of a philanthropic sportsman, who when he was alive delivered
a large tract of country from the ravages of tigers.
And here we may note other methods of neutralizing the
evil influences of demons prevalent in Southern India. Male
and female devils are supposed to delight in dancing, particu-
larly when accompanied with wild cries, violent gesticulations,
ringing of bells, and noisy discordant music. Hence it happens
that, when pestilence is rife in any district, professional exer-
cisers, or certain persons selected for the purpose, paint their
faces, put on hideous masks, dress up in fantastic garments,
arm themselves with strange weapons, and commence dancing.
Their object is to personate particular devils, or rather per-
haps to induce such devils to leave the persons of their victims
and to occupy the persons of the dancers, who shriek, fling
themselves about, and work themselves up into a phrenzy of
excitement, amid beating of tom-toms, blowing of horns, and
ringing of bells. When the dancers are thoroughly exhausted
by their gesticulations they sink down in a kind of trance, and
are then believed to be actually possessed by the spirit of the
demon and are turned for a time into demon-mediums, gifted
with clairvoyance and a power of delivering prophetic utter-
ances. The spectators ask them questions about missing
relatives or future events, and their deliverances are supposed
to be oracular.