60 



SPELLS OR CHARMS 



others both in the offerings it requires, and in the time, place, and 

 manner of its performance. However the Kan-ya Nool, altars, 

 flowers, and the smoking hrepot, are always required; and graves, 

 generally. 



An ordinary Aaraksa Nool, that is a charmed thread worn about 

 the person as an amulet against Tanicama, requires no greater 

 Jeewama ceremony than this — the Cattadiya having gone to the 

 back of the house with a Kan-ya Nool, some live cinders in a 

 cocoanut shell or a tile, and a little saffron and resin, pronounces 

 his charm in the usual low muttering tone, all the while perfuming 

 the thread with the resin smoke, and making a few knots in it, 

 equal sometimes to the number of times he pronounces the charm. 

 All this does not take up more than 30 or 40 minutes. But in 

 certain other Jeewamas, such as those relating to many kinds of 

 Hooniyan and Pilli, whose object is the destruction of some person, 

 these things are done on a greater scale, and are said to be attended 

 with great danger to the lives of those engaged in them. 



The danger, it is said, consists in this, — When the Cattadiya is 

 going on with his incantation, but particularly about its conclusion 

 when the virtues of the charm are becoming perfected, demons 

 begin to arrive on the spot, one after another, generally in the 

 disguise of beasts and serpents, such as monkeys, black dogs, ele- 

 phants, tigers, Cobra-de-Capeilos, polongas, and sometimes in the 

 shape of old wrinkled grey headed men and women, with the ex- 

 ception of the last demon who appears like a man. Each of these, 

 as he arrives, must be presented with the particular offering 

 appointed for him, such as an egg, a fowl, some boiled rice, a young 

 king-cocoanut, a few drops of blood, or something else as directed 

 in the charm itself ; any mistake or delay in presenting the offering 

 being followed by immediate death or incurable sickness to those 

 engaged in the ceremony. The demons, when they approach the 

 scene, do all they can to frighten away the men, either by felling 

 large trees near the spot, or by surrounding the men with a ring 

 of burning jungle, or by creating a thick darkness, such as Milton 

 speaks of in his Paradise Lost, or by uttering loud screams and 



