DEMON POSSESSION. 



101 



weakness and faintness, accompanied sometimes by a sort of invo- 

 luntary tremor in her limbs and shoulders. She then sinks into a 

 state of insensibility, as in a swoon, but continues ever and anon to 

 gnash and grind her teeth, and now and then opens her eyes, and 

 looks at the bystanders with a fierce angry stare, rolling the eye- 

 balls so as to conceal the iris as much as possible, and to display 

 only the whites of the eyes. Some women do not fall into swoons 

 at all, but, get into a most excited state of frenzy, and shout and 

 howl in the most remarkable manner, the Hoo sound being the 

 most prominent, sometimes mentioning also the names of a demon 

 or two, and screaming out that the demon would not be satisfied, 

 unless an offering were made to him. Some attempt to run about. 

 Some rush into the Dancing Ring, if a demon ceremony is taking 

 place at the time, and wresting from the Cattadiya's hands the 

 burning torch, dance away in the most violent manner. On these 

 occasions the Cattadiya performs his incantations over the woman, 

 and she recovers. If she is asked afterwards, whether she had any 

 consciousness of what she said and did during her " madness," she 

 of course says that she had not. During the frenzy she sometimes, 

 but not often, uses very indecent language, although at all other 

 times in her life she has never been heard to use, even by way of 

 a joke among friends of her own sex, any expression unwarranted 

 by good manners and the rules of decency and morality. 



There is one woman that we know, who is subject to " demon 

 possession" in a peculiar manner. She is a Pattini Hamy (priestess 

 of the goddess Pattini Dewiyo), and wife of a Capua (priest of 

 the gods.) Whenever this Capua happens to be engaged in any 

 ceremony peculiar to the worship of the gods, his wife the Pattini 

 Hamy, who is at home and at a distance from the scene of the cere- 

 mony, gets herself into this peculiar condition about 3 or 4 o'clock 

 in the morning, at which time the Capua is engaged in a particu- 

 larly important part of his ceremony. She does not shout nor 

 attempt to run away like many of those already mentioned, but 

 falls into a sort of partial swoon, during which, at short intervals 

 of time, she moves her head from side to side very rapidly, mutter- 



