OR YAItSETO. 



41 



part of the Island repair to this temple during all seasons of the 

 year, hoping to get relief from some demon influence, with which 

 they suppose themselves to be afflicted, and which appears to them 

 to be irremovable by any other means. This is especially the 

 case with those persons, most frequently women, who are supposed 

 to be possessed by a demon. Dancing, singing and shouting without 

 cause, trembling and shaking of the limbs, or frequent and pro- 

 longed fainting fits are considered the most ordinary symptoms of 

 possession by a demon. Some women, when under this imaginary 

 influence, attempt to run away from their homes, often using foul 

 language, aud sometimes biting and tearing their hair and flesh. The 

 fit does not generally last more than an hour at a time; sometimes one 

 fit succeeds another at short intervals; sometimes it comes upon the 

 woman only on Saturdays and Wednesdays, or once in three or four 

 months; but always invariably during the performance of any demon 

 ceremony. On these occasions temporary relief is obtained by the 

 incantations of the Cattadiya; but when it appears that no incan- 

 tations can effect a permanent cure, the only remaining remedy is 

 to go to Gala kep-pu Dewale, where the following scene takes 

 place. When the woman is within two or three miles of the tem- 

 ple, the demon influence is supposed to come on her, and she walks 

 in a wild, hurried, desperate manner towards the temple. When 

 in this mood no one can stop her; if any attempt it, she will tear 

 herself to pieces rather than be stopped. She walks faster and 

 faster, as she comes nearer and nearer to the holy place, until at 

 last, on reaching it, she either creeps into a corner, and sits there, 

 crying and trembling, or remains quite speechless and senseless, as 

 if overpowered by extreme fear, until the Capua begins the exor- 

 cism. Sometimes she walks to the temple very quietly, without 

 any apparent influence of the demon on her, and that influence 

 seems to come upon her, only when the exorcism begins. The 

 principal room of the temple is partitioned off by curtains into three 

 divisions, the middle one of which is the sanctum sanctorum of the 

 God, as the demon chief is generally called. The Capua stands 



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