PILLI CHARMS. 



In each of these a particular demon is supposed to go to the in- 

 tended victim, disguised in some particular form. In the first he 

 is said to disguise himself as a fair looking young man; in the 

 second, as a Cobra de Capello; in the third, as a boy; in the fourth, 

 as a hen; in the fifth, as a little girl; in the sixth, as a firefly; in 

 the seventh, as a peacock; in the eighth, as a beetle; in the ninth, 

 as an old man ; in the tenth, as a wild hog ; in the eleventh, as an 

 old woman; in the twelfth, as a hornet; in the thirteenth, as a bee; 

 in the fourteenth, as a Malabar man; in the fifteenth, as a lion; 

 in the sixteenth, as an elephant; in the seventeenth, as a ball of fire; 

 and in the eighteenth, as a dog. 



Soon after the approach of the demon, the man is said suddenly 

 to drop down dead, or to vomit blood first and die immediately 

 afterwards. In some Pillis the demon uses violence, and either 

 stabs the man, or strangles him to death. In the preparation of 

 Cumara Pilli, the corpse of a male infant, the firstborn of his mother, 

 is essential. This is first submitted to a sort of embalming process, 

 and then having been dried by the heat of a fire made with sandal 

 and Pas Pengiri wood, is locked up in a box made of Cohomba or 

 Banyan wood, and placed in some spot unfrequented by women, so 

 as to be safe from the pollution of Kill or Uncleanness.* At the 

 Jeewama, two knives are placed in its right and left hands, and 

 the charm is then pronounced over it, during the three Yamas of 

 a Sunday, on a grave not more than three days old. Of course, 

 offerings are made to the demons, as usual. It is supposed that 



* The Uncleanness, or as it is called in Singhalese KM, is a sort of imaginary 

 pollution anxiously avoided in every thing relating to Demon Worship. 

 The principal occasions or causes of uncleanness are the death of a human 

 being, the menstrual discharge in women, the flesh of certain animals such as 

 pigs, peacocks, monkeys, and the fishes Magara and lngura> and the birth of a 

 child. In the case of death, the uncleanness is supposed to last for three 

 months together ; and it extends its mysterious influence not only in and near 

 the dead body or the house where the man died, but to a distance of " seven 

 gardens" [about a \ or \ of a mile] from that house. The uncleanness arising 

 from death is the most malignant, and is supposed to come upon a person, even 

 when he passes by the house of a deceased person. The principal consequence 



