176 THE LATE REV. P. DEHON ON 



cover their disciples with their shades. The man possessed by Bhainsasur leaves the 

 room immediately and goes treading heavily along to the next quagmire where he remains 

 wallowing in the mud like a buffalo. After an hour he comes back besmeared with mud 

 from head to foot, and Bhainsasur through the mouth of the possessed pupil tells the guru 

 that he wants to go away. He is led to the place where the gandhup is burning, inhales 

 the fumes, and comes back to his senses. 



The man possessed by Hanuman, or the monkey deified, begins immediately to run 

 along the rafters of the school-room, imitating the monkey in everything — his cries, his 

 gestures, his grimaces. Those that have not as yet been possessed enjoy the joke and 

 ask the guru to call Narsing, or the tiger deified, to take possession of another disciple. 

 Then there follows a scene as ludicrous perhaps as can be imagined. The man possessed 

 by Narsing runs about the house on all fours roaring like a tiger and trying to jump 

 on the walls to catch the monkey. No pantomime could be played more perfectly, as 

 each unconciously shows all the characteristics of a tiger and a monkey in a stage of 

 nature. The agility of the man possessed by Hanuman is something most wonderful. 

 He runs from rafter to rafter, jumps on the wall, then again on the rafters showing the same 

 fear and producing the same noise, as a terrified monkey, till at last, seeing the door open, 

 he jumps on the floor and runs out to the nearest tree followed by the tiger. Here they 

 remain for some time, the tiger running round and round the tree and the monkey going 

 from branch to branch. After some time they come back, and Hanuman and Narsing, 

 through the mouth of the possessed pupils, ask the guru to be allowed to depart. He 

 leads them to the gandhup, and makes them inhale the fumes, and they come back to their 

 senses. The man possessed by Ncwra goes sniffing about the house and searching here 

 and there like the mongoose. The possession produced by Dcogan Konru, Madho and 

 Bliuinphar are similar. They dance and dance, in the queerest fashion, until they are 

 relieved by the guru. ' These scenes are repeated every Sunday : sometimes two, sometimes 

 three pupils fall into a trance, whilst the others enjoy the joke. On special days only, 

 they all become possessed at the same time, and the scene that follows can be better 

 imagined than described. All the time the guru keeps on singing mantras and 



incantations. 



There is no monotony in the scenes that take place. The guru can vary them as he 

 pleases with the mongoose and the monkey, or the buffalo and the tiger, and so on. So 

 that Sunday is always a great day of recreation for the pupils. Hanuman, of course, is 

 their favourite. He has been known to go into a garden, and finding no other fruit but 

 capsicum to eat a whole handful of it. But this he cannot keep in his stomach, and as 

 soon as he comes back to his senses he vomits it out. 



They say that sometimes bhuinphar takes a fancy to one of the pupils and then 

 something wonderful happens : he seems to learn all the mantras and incantations by 

 intuition or revelation. A pupil so specialised seems to be always in a state of 

 hypnotism, and sings continually mantras and incantations. It is recognised that bhuin- 

 phar has taken possession of him for good, and he leaves the school and becomes a 

 bhagat. He lives like a jogi separated from the tribe, does not drink any intoxicating 

 liquor and eats no meat. He grows a thick tuft. of hair on the top of his head, which he 



