Chap. VI.J SUPERSTITIOUS CEREMOXIES. .:4.> 



latiou, and in tlie vicinity of the chief town of tlie 

 province, is in itself an exemphiication of tlie mass of 

 barbarism and superstition which still exists amongst 

 the natives of Jaffna, even after three hundred years 

 of European government, and despite the labours 

 and acliievements of so many Christian teachers and 

 ministers. 



In December, 1848, the police vidahn of Vannar- 

 poonne, in the suburbs of Jaffna, came to the magistrate 

 in much mental agitation and distress, to complain that 

 the remains of his son, a boy of about eight years of age, 

 which had been buried the day before, had been disin- 

 terred during the night, and that the head had been 

 severed from the body to be used for the purposes of 

 witchcraft. Suspicion fell on a native doctor of the vil- 

 lage, who was extensively consulted as an adept in the 

 occult sciences ; but no evidence could be produced 

 sufficient to connect him with the transaction. The 

 vidahn stated to the magistrate that a general belief 

 existed amongst the Tamils in the fatal effects of a cere- 

 mony, performed with the skull of a child, with the 

 design of producing the death of an individual against 

 whom the incantation was directed. The skull of a 

 male child, and particularly of a first-born, is preferred, 

 and the effects are regarded as more certain if it 

 be killed expressly for the occasion ; but for ordinary 

 purposes, the head of one who had died a natural deatli 

 is presumed to be sufficient. The form of the ceremony 

 is to draw certahi figures and cabahstic signs upon the 

 skull, after it has been scraped and denuded of the flesh ; 

 adcUng the name of tliia*ndividual upon whom the charm 

 is to take effect. A paste is then prepared, composed oi 

 sand from the footprints of the intended victim, and 

 a portion of his hair moistened with his sahva, and this, 

 being spread u]^on a leaden plate, is taken, together with 

 the skull to the graveyard of the village, where for foi'ty 

 nights the evil spirits are invoked to destroy the person 

 so denounced. The universal belief of the natives 



VOL. II. NX 



