120 IMAGES AND NAMES, 



bits of leather^ etc., and with this they make little figures, on 

 the breasts of which they write the name of the enemy ; over 

 these they pronounce magical words and mantrams, and conse- 

 crate them by sacrifices. No sooner is this done, than the 

 grahas, or planets, seize the hated person, and inflict on him a 

 thousand ills. They sometimes pierce these figures right 

 through with an awl, or cripple them in different ways, with 

 the intention of killing or crippling in reality the object of their 

 vengeance."^ Again, the Karens of Burmah model an image 

 of a person from the earth of his footprints, and stick it over 

 with cottonseeds, intending thereby to strike the person re- 

 presented with dumbness." Here we have the making of the 

 figure combined with the ancient practice in Germany known 

 as the ''earth- cutting" (erdschnitt), cutting out the earth or 

 turf where the man who is to be destroyed has stood, and 

 hauging it in the chimney, that he may perish as his footprint 

 dries and shrivels.^ 



In these cases the object in view is to hurt the original 

 through the image, but it is also possible to make an image, 

 transfer to it the evil spirit of the disease which has attacked 

 the person it is to represent, and then send it out like a scape- 

 goat into the wilderness. They conjure devils into puppets in 

 West Africa;* in Siam the doctor makes an image of clay^ 

 sends his patient's disease into it, and then takes it away to 

 the woods and buries it •/ while the Tunguz cures his leg or 

 his heart by wearing a carved model of the part aff"ected about 

 him.^ 



The transfer of life or the qualities of a living being to an 

 image may be made by giving it a name, or by the performance 

 of a ceremony over it. Thus, at the festival of the Durga Puja, 

 the ofiiciating Brahman touches the cheeks, eyes, breast, and fore- 

 head of each of the images that have been prepared, and says, 

 "Let the soul of Durga long continue in happiness in this image." 



1 Dubois, Moeurs, etc., des Peuples de I'lnde ; Paris, 1825, vol. ii. p. 63. 



2 Mrs. Mason, 'Civilizing Mountain Men;' London, 1862, p. 121. 



3 Grimm, D. M., p. 1047. 



^ Hutchinson, in Tr. Etii. Soc. ; London, 1861, p. 336. 



* Bowring, ' Siam ;' London, 1857, vol. i. p. 139. 



" Eavenstein, ' The Eussians on the Amur ;' London, 1861, p. 351. 



