1851.] Notes upon a Tour through the Rajmahal Hills. 571 



offerings had reached to about fifty, the two men under the shed, 

 whom I now perceived were shaking as if possessed with a violent 

 ague, commenced shrieking in a horrid manner ; several Sonthals 

 immediately rushed forward and commenced asking the shaking men 

 numerous questions, which were sometimes answered by words, but 

 oftener by loud screams ; a favorable crisis appeared to have arrived 

 at last as both the men springing up from the ground with the most 

 demoniacal yells and fearful bodily contortions, led out a small black 

 male kid, whose head at one stroke of a sword, one of the mad or 

 possessed men severed from its body ; before the body could fall to 

 the ground the second screamer who held the string that was tied 

 round the kid's neck, rushed forward and caught it in his arms ; lift- 

 ing it off the ground with his left hand, he grasped the neck with the 

 right hand so as to check the flow of blood from the severed arteries ; 

 he then walked up to the small leaf dishes containing the offerings, 

 withdrew his right hand, and from the spouting arteries filled as many 

 of the cups as the flow of blood would permit ; the body and limbs 

 of the kid writhing and kicking convulsively a great portion of the 

 time. 



Having finished this disgusting scene a question was again put by 

 the Mangi of the village to the sacrificer, as to whether the deity 

 was pleased, and whether he was ready for the dance ; the answer was 

 in the affirmative ; upon which, one of the possessed men had a green 

 bamboo placed in his two hands which were raised high in the air 

 over his head, and the word being given by the Mangi to go and call 

 out the villagers to drink and dance in honor of their deity, the man 

 tore away at a furious pace, his hands over his head, screaming in a 

 most horrid manner. The villagers received the summons and repair- 

 ed male and female to join in the dance which took place at the place 

 of sacrifice. 



I subsequently ascertained that the shaking fits betokened excessive 

 thought or contemplation, and that men fast for two, three and even 

 for ten days to bring themselves into a state of half wildness, during 

 which period they are supposed to answer any questions put to them, 

 not through their own power or by their own knowledge, but through 

 the power of the deity possessing them, which in this case appears to 

 have been the spirit of Bora Mangi a deceased and canonized Mangi 

 and formerly a chief amongst them. 4 d 2 



