Vol. X. No. 9.] Magic and Witchcraft in CJiota Nagpur. 353 



[N.8.} 



go to the house where the bird first goes or is taken to. 

 As for the singhi, after an evil spirit has been confined in 

 it, the singhi is secretly carried at night and buried in the 

 compound, or stuck into the mud- wall of the house of an enemy, 

 so that the evil spirit may thenceforth trouble such enemy by 

 bringing disease to himself or his people. This sort of ■ traffick- 

 ing with the devil' is, however, held in as much abhorrence 

 and detestation by savage and barbarian societies as by the 

 civilized man. And the Mundas and the Oraons of Chota 

 Nagpur believe that a witch and a black magician, though 

 they may prosper in the world for a while, are sure to end 

 their lives in misery as a divine punishment for their nefarious 



practices. 



The principle of Avoidance by diverting the attention of 

 an evil power is illustrated by the use of certain amulets such as 

 cowrie- shells worn on the neck or waist of a child. The Chota 

 Nagpur aboriginal believes that such striking objects divert the 

 1 evil eye ' of the sorcerer or the malice of an evil spirit from the 

 child to the amulet. Avoidance of evil powers through mimetic 

 repulsion may be illustrated by various practices in vogue on 

 the Chota Nagpur plateau. A typical instance is the ceremony 

 of driving cattle-diseases. By previous appointment, the young 

 bachelors of the village and the village-cowherd assemble at the 

 village dancing-ground or akhra at dead of night. A tharki or 

 wooden cow-bell is tied to the neck of the cowherd. Thus 

 arrayed, the cowherd has to run towards the boundary of an 

 adjoining village, and the young bachelors, with all their clothes 

 stripped off and with wooden clubs in their hands make a show 

 of chasing the cowherd. The latter on reaching the boundary 

 of the adjoining village drops down the cowbell , which is appa- 

 rently meant to represent the disease -spirit, and beats a hasty 

 retreat. His pursuers, too, go up to the spot where the cow- 

 bell has been dropped, leave their own clubs on the same spot, 

 apparently as a threat to the disease-spirit, and return home 

 in the conviction that their village is now rid of the spirit. 



In such a case, it is not the fear of physicaHorce but the 

 pressure of the cumulative spiritual force or mana of the batch 

 of naked bachelors that compels the disease-spirit to take flight. 



Such are a few illustrations of the principles and practice 

 of Magic and Witchcraft on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. It is 

 evident that it is the intellect and not so much the heart of 

 the man of the lower culture that is at fault. He too is in 

 quest of the good,— the good as he vaguely and sometimes 

 erroneously understands it. And thus amongst these younger 

 brethren of humanity, as amongst their elder brethren of the 

 higher culture, we meet with the same ceaseless striymg after 

 what they consider to be the good ,— the arduous striving which 

 commenced when Time began and will continue till Time shall 

 be no more. 



