110 S. C. Mitra — Some Beliefs in a Being or Animal. TNo. 3, 



tion was made in the ground, sufficiently large to accommodate the would- 

 be Takh and to contain the treasure, which was put into a number of 

 ghadas (^TT), or pitehers of bell-metal. The child was then made to 

 sit in this excavation, and the gliadas containing the treasure were 

 arranged in it. A lamp containing a wick in some ghi or clarified butter, 

 was lighted and kept burning near him. Then an invocation was made 

 to the Takh, that the treasure was being made over to him and that he 

 should keep strict watch and ward over it. Then the excavation was 

 closed by placing some planks over it, and earth was then thrown over 

 it. The child gradually became drowsy, owing to asphyxia, and remained 

 alive so long as the lamp kept burning. Ultimately the child used to 

 die of suffocation. The spirit of the dead child, thus, became the 

 suardian of the hidden treasure. 



This practice was frequently resorted to in the olden times, and 

 even after the establishment of British Rule in Bengal. It is now no 

 longer heard of. If the parents of the missing child any how got scent 

 that their child had been kidnapped and was being made a ??*§, and if 

 they got any clue to his whereabouts, they immediately went thither, 

 rescued the child from a horrible death, and appropriated the treasure 

 to themselves, for the real owner thereof did not dare appear and prefer 

 a claim to it, for fear of being punished for kidnapping and attempted 

 manslaughter. Hence all the ceremonies were performed secretly so 

 that the parents of the kidnapped child might not know of it. 



Many tanks in Bengal had the evil repute of being haunted by 

 Yakhs. I recollect having heard, in my childhood, from my mother and 

 grandmother, many a mythical story to the effect that the Takhs used 

 to come up to the steps leading into the tanks, and place thereon the 

 ghadas containing the hidden treasure, and disappeared within the 

 depths of the tank as soon as a human being appeared on the spot, the 

 gliadas also vanishing into the water. Whoever attempted to appro- 

 priate the money was killed by the Yakh. 



This practice has now fallen into desuetude owing to the security of 

 property and wealth, enjoyed under the aegis of British Rule, to the 

 fear of prosecution for kidnapping and attempted manslaughter, and, 

 above all, to the spread of education and the consequent enlightenment 

 of men's minds from superstitious beliefs. Traces of the belief in ?H5 

 still survive in several Bengali proverbial expressions. A thing which 

 is highly prized by its owner and which he is loth to part with, is spoken 

 of as being a ^I#T V«T or the treasures of a Yakh. A person carefully 

 watching a thing or anxiously waiting for some other object, is spoken 

 of as ^ftj"< *nr«T W*J ^TW or as sitting like a Yakh. 



Similar beliefs about a mythical animal keeping watch and ward 



