190 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. { August, 1908, 
to be possessed by the Devil. At eleven o’clock I was called to 
the Leper Asylum, of which I am Superintendant, to see a leper 
named Visahu, who was laid hold of by Shaitan. It was a 
dark, drizzling mght and I went to the Asylum lantern in hand. 
Approaching the gate of the Asylum I heard many loud voices 
for the lepers were greatly excited, and I could also hear the 
grinding of teeth from the unfortunate man. This was heard 
at a distance of fully one hundred yards. On approaching the 
crowd I found the leper Visahu, a man of medium physique, 
lying on the ground on his chest struggling violently, while 
two men were seated on him trying to keep him down. They 
told me he was making efforts to run away from them, and as 
the river was not far off they feared he would drown himself. I 
immediately ordered the men to loosen their hold of him, and 
I talked with him calmly and firmly and tried to pacify him. 
Meanwhile I noted the wild meaningless look in his eyes, as 
though he was terribly frightened. He was trembling, shaking 
from nead to foot, his teeth were grinding, and I was convinced it 
was not a case of shamming. I concluded he was in a fit of 
some kind. Ordering the ammonia bottle from the hospital, I 
led Visahu to his own room, and had his bed put in readiness. As 
we were about to enter his room, the man broke away from me 
and rushing through the lepers who had gathered around, he 
went straight for the gate. I went after him as fast as possible, 
and the crowd followed me. Visahu ran straight into the grveyard, 
close by; seeing this the crowd hung back and only two atten- 
dants followed me as I ran after the man over the Chamar 
graves. With shod feet and with a lantern we had difficulty in 
following the man because of the cactus thorns and the ditches full 
of water. He, however, did not seem to heed these, and ran alone 
bare-footed over the graves and the thorns to the other end of the 
graveyard where he plunged into a ditch full of water. When 
we overtook him, he sat quaking and grinding his teeth staring 
around wildly. I again laid hold of his arm and led him back 
to the Asylum and seated him in the Chapel. Here I kept him 
under my gaze, talked with him and poured water between his 
set teeth. For sometime he gazed at me stolidly, with a vacant 
look and without blinking; there was no intelligence in his face. 
In the meantime the ammonia was brought from the hospital. 
He did not seem affected by it. After about ten minutes in the 
Chapel, his face changed, he looked around to the others and 
said, ““ Why have you brought me here?” He seemed like one 
waking from sleep. He felt the mud and water on his body 
and asked why we had thrown water on him. I asked him 
where he had been; he said, “Nowhere!” He had no recollection 
of having acted strangely. He then became conscious of the 
bruise on his knee and the thorns which had become imbedded 
in his feet. On questioning him I learned that he had been 
on leave from the Asylum and had returned that morning walking 
some eight miles. After a night meal, he sat in the corner of 
his room playing on a long bamboo flute which has a deep 
