DEMON POSSESSION. 



107 



do not seem to be suffering from any disease, but on the contrary 

 are in the enjoyment of good health. 



Many of the so-called demon possessions are without doubt mere 

 shams, grown perhaps fashionable among a certain class of ignorant 

 coquettish young women; but some, forming of course a small 

 minority, do not, we are inclined to believe, admit of this explana- 

 tion, if we can place any reliance on our own senses and judgment. 

 Whether or not real demon possessions, such as those mentioned 

 in the New Testament, do take place in these days too, we do not 

 know; but if, as we think, they do not, this remarkable phenome- 

 non can be explained only by attributing it to involuntary Mes- 

 merism and what has been called the Cataleptic trance. But the 

 wonder is that it should be so frequent and common in this Island, 

 in so much as to exceed in the number of occasions and the number 

 of persons affected, all the demoniac possessions or what were so 

 called, which have ever been recorded as having occurred in all 

 other parts of the world put together, from the beginning of the 

 Christian era down to this day. We do not know what are the 

 causes which induce the mesmeric state in a person; but if an ex- 

 cited imagination, overwrought feelings of superstitious fear, and 

 an intense fervid belief in the existence and the attributes of de- 

 mons, combined with very weak, credulous, timid minds, can do it, 

 then all these may be found in a high degree in a large majority 

 of Singhalese females. 



However, whatever may be the cause, whether it be mesmeric 

 agency, or mere shamming, still the fact is remarkable in either 

 case. For, if Mesmerism or the Cataleptic trance, be the cause, 

 why or how it should be found in such active operation in so many 

 instances in this Island during every year, would be an interesting 

 subject of inquiry, nor on the other hand can the other imputed 

 cause (if cause it be in all those instances), viz., a morbid propen- 

 sity, which leads women to counterfeit demon possession, appear 

 to be a matter less remarkable, in as much as it shews the low 

 state of education which exists among the Singhalese. 



