Vol. X, No. 9.] Magic and Witchcraft in Chota Nagpur. 351 



[N.S.] 

 II. Evil Magic and the Principle of Avoidance. 



From a fear of the mischievous effects of contact with 

 vague and indefinite evil powers arose the various tabus im- 

 posed by primitive communities on their members. The idea 

 of pollution through eating food or drinking water touched by 

 a man of another tribe or caste is not a monopoly of any one 

 race or tribe, but is widely prevalent among peoples of the 

 lower culture. Although the idea has been greatly improved 

 upon by the Hindu with his higher culture, it is among such 

 peoples of the lower culture as the Mundas and the Oraons 

 that the original motive behind the practice may be seen in 

 its naked simplicity. In fact, these tribes have carried the 

 idea to its utmost logical limits. Thus, the Oraon or the 

 Munda not only deems it a pollution to take cooked food at 

 the hands of a non-Oraon or a non-Munda, but he even believes 

 that should he chance to walk across a plate or a cup from which 

 an alien has taken food, he is sure to get pain in his gullet. 

 The evil power residing in an alien is, in such a case, believed to 

 have imparted part of its energy into the plate or the cup 

 through contact, and this imparted energy is further t 

 f erred, on the principle of sympathetic magic, to the gullet of 

 the unfortunate person who may have chanced to walk across it. 



The idea of tabu, however, is not always the avoidance 

 of evil powers ; in some cases, it is the fear of harm through 

 unskilful or untimely handling of the mysterious and the sacred. 

 This is illustrated by an interesting custom in vogue amongst 

 the aborigines of Chota Nagpur. An Oraon of a village in 

 which the annual sarhul ceremony has not yet been celebrated 

 always avoids entering the houses— and, if possible, the 

 limits — of a village where the sarhul has been already cele- 

 brated. Even if unavoidable necessity takes him to such a 

 village, he will on no account eat, or drink, or even smoke, or 

 chew tobacco with a person of that village, nor sit on the 

 same mat with him , nor touch the springs or wells of that 

 village. But an Oraon in whose village the sarhul has been 

 celebrated may take food or water at the hands of people in 

 whose villages the festival has not yet been celebrated. The 

 celebration of this festival is believed to arouse all the deities 

 into activity, and this is why Oraons who have not yet- 

 renewed their alliance with the gods by celebrating the sarhul 



ans 



in their villages, are afraid of approaching a village where the 

 ' gods are up '— 4 deo uthlak 9 --a& they put it. 



Maleficent contagious magic is further illustrated by vari- 

 ous practices of the witch and the sorcerer of Chota Nagpur. 

 Superior spiritual energy or mana, partly natural and partly 

 acquired through occult practices, the help of a familiar spirit, 

 and the mysterious force of the maniram or magic spell,— these 

 account for the occult powers of the witch and the sorcerer. 



