IN GENERAL. 



58 



The virtue and efficacy of a charm however consist, it is said, 

 not so much in the meaning of the language used, as in a peculiar 

 arrangement and combination of certain letters, each having its 

 own peculiar power. According to this classification, some letters 

 are called poisonous, others deadly, a third class fiery, a fourth 

 quarrelsome, and a fifth causing banishment. On the other hand 

 there are others called prosperous, some pleasure-giving, a third 

 and a fourth class health- giving and friendly, and a fifth divine; 

 while a few are called neutral. Then again, these letters, when 

 arranged and combined in a certain order, have different virtues — - 

 virtues much stronger, than those of single letters. Each of these 

 combinations of letters is sacred to a certain demon, for whom it 

 has an unaccountable, mysterious, and irresistible fascination, from 

 which he cannot free himself. The mysterious virtues of all these 

 combined characters in a charm, are sufficient to overpower and 

 enslave the most powerful demons to the will of the Cattadiya. 

 To make a charm still more irresistible, flattery and entreaties are 

 employed, or the terrible power of king Wessamoany is invoked, 

 or the omnipotence of Buddha, and all set off in language the most 

 horrible* to the ears of a demon-worshipper. 



Native authors maintain that Brahma himself was the original 

 author of charms, but that the science, as they call it, was after- 

 wards amplified and improved by nine Irshis or learned pundits, 

 who lived in India some thousands of years ago. It is divided 

 into eight different parts called Carma or acts, according to the 

 different character of the subjects it treats of. These are 1, Mo- 

 han a or the power of inducing swoons; 2, Stambana or illicit sex- 

 ual intercourse; 3, Otchatana or the expulsion of demons; 4, 

 Aakarsana or compelling the attendance of demons; 5, Wibeysana 



* The most prominent feature in the language of Singhalese charms is an 

 endless repetition of such terms as red blood, heart's blood, eat his lungs, graves, 

 corpses, living corpses, suck his blood, tear open his heart, suck the marrow, a 

 cloth dipped in blood, eat his heart, break his neck and suck the blood, and many 

 others, which have a very appalling effect on the timid, superstitious mind of 

 a demon- worshipper. 



