46 



HOW DEMONS 



top of the head down to the ancles. Sometimes the travellers find 

 the road blocked up by a large tree lying prostrate across it with 

 all its branches and leaves quite fresh, and if they try to go some 

 other way, they find themselves similarly obstructed by trees and 

 thick jungle, in places where there were none before; or they hear 

 a loud hoo* shout, which however nobody else in the neighbour- 

 hood hears, but they; or a large black dog, or a monkey gives 

 them chase; or they hear the sound of footsteps behind them, as of 

 somebody coming up, but on turning round they see no one, and so 

 they continue their journey, but hardly move a fathom before they 

 hear the same sound again, more distinct and louder, and yet there 

 is nobody to be seen; or when they are quietly moving on, they re- 

 ceive near a certain large tree a smart blow on the back from the 

 cold open hand of somebody, who is no where to be seen; some- 

 times they see a man, a stranger, crossing their path at a short dis- 

 tance in front; or they see a man standing a little out of the road 

 appearing at first to be of the ordinary stature of men, but gradu- 

 ally becoming taller and taller, till he overtops the neighbouring 

 cocoanut tree itself. A Singhalese, to whom any of these things 

 happens, is sure to be so much frightened, as to get some serious 

 illness; on some, their superstitious terrors have had so strong an 

 effect that they have dropped down on the spot perfectly senseless, 

 and have been carried home in a hopeless state, and died within a 

 few days; some have managed to run home but have been taken ill 

 there, and have either died, or recovered only after three or four 

 months of suffering, while others have become raving maniacs for 

 the rest of their lives. 



Although demons are said to shew themselves in these ways to 

 men, yet the opinion of those, who may be called the more or- 

 thodox of the demon-worshippers, is that these apparitions are not 

 the demons themselves, but certain puppet-like spectres, which 



* A Hoo shout is one peculiar to the people of this island. It consists of a 

 loud, single, guttural sound, uttered as loud as a man's lungs permit. A quar- 

 ter of a mile is generally considered to be the distance at which a loud Hoo can 

 be heard. 



