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JEEWANG BANDENA 



other obstacle is, if possible, still more insurmountable, in as much 

 as when you think you have nearly convinced him, and that you 

 are in a fairway of converting' him to the side of reason and truth, 

 you are at once stopped by an argument, which he throws in your 

 face, and which certainly you cannot answer, — an appeal to his 

 own experience of what he has seen with his own eyes," and 

 what he is certain cannot be otherwise than as he thinks it is. He 

 will tell you at the conclusion of your lecture, " Sir, all this may 

 be true, indeed very true, but for what I have seen with these 

 eyes of mine." If you ask him what those things may be which 

 he has seen with " his own eyes," he will mention to you several 

 instances of men, women, and children cured of sundry dangerous 

 diseases by means of Charms and Demon Ceremonies, or of others 

 who were suddenly struck down with disease by demon influence, 

 and whom no medicine could cure until the Cattadiya performed a 

 certain ceremony. If you try to argue with him on the possibility 

 of any of these things happening in the ordinary course of nature 

 without the agency of any demon or charm, he will give you his 

 reasons against such a belief. He will say" Oh I have seen it 

 with these two eyes of mine, and I know very well that it is so. 

 It can't be otherwise. If my eyes and ears do not deceive me in 

 other things of my daily life, why should they do so in this. 

 Chance cannot do these things, nor the ordinary course of nature. 

 If demons and demon-sickness, and demon-ceremonies be mere 

 fictions, I should be more glad of it than you, because it would save 

 my poor earnings for other purposes; but that they are not fictions, 

 I have often found to my cost. Only the other day Sanchy Hamy, 

 Tamby Appoo's wife, fell sick; and who cured her? To be sure, 

 the Cattadiya, And why didn't Juanis Wederalla (physician) cure 

 her, although he exhausted all his skill and art during four or five 

 weeks? Abanchy Appoo practised Hoouiyan spells on my uncle 

 last year; and my uncle fell sick about 5 months afterwards. 

 Could the Wederalla cure him? Did he cure him? Or, did any 

 other demon ceremony cure him until the proper one, namely 

 Hooniyan Kepeema, was performed. Didn't my uncle get better 



