14 j 
HINDGOSTAN. 
Tint abfolutely refufed to attend him; declaring that die 
■would throw herfelf into the firll weil rather than fubmit. 
The fummons was not enforced. 
Thefe defperate refources, and in fuch petty cafes, ap¬ 
pear very oppofite to that humanity and mildnefs of dif- 
pofition by which the learned author of the Inftitutes 
affirms the inhabitants of this country to have been dif- 
tinguifhed in every age. It mud however be admitted, 
that individuals in India, are often irritated by trifling 
provocations to the commiffion of afts which no provo¬ 
cation can jultify; and, without reference to the conduit 
of profeffied depredators, examples may be produced of 
enormities fcarcely credible. 
In i79r, Soodiditer Mier, a Brahmin, the farmer of 
land paying revenue, and tenant of tax-free land, in the 
province of Benares, was lummoned to appear before a 
native officer, the deputy colleftor of the diitrift where 
he redded. He podtively refufed to obey the fummons, 
which was repeated without effeft; and after dome time 
i'everal people were deputed to enforce the procefs, by 
compelling his attendance. On their approaching his 
houfe, he cut off the head of his deceafed fon’s widow, and 
threw it out to them. His drft intention was to deftroy 
his own wife ; but it was proved in evidence that, upon 
his indication of it, his Ion’s widow requeued him to de¬ 
capitate her; which he inflantly did. 
Another Brahmin, named Baloo Paundeh, in 1793, was 
convicted of the murder of his daughter. His own ac¬ 
count of the tranfaftion will belt explain it, and his mo¬ 
tives ; he Hated, that about twelve year before the period 
of the murder, he, Baloo, and another man, were joint 
tenants and cultivato/s of a fpot of ground, when his 
partner Baloo relinquifhed his fhare. In 1793 this part¬ 
ner again brought forward a claim to a fhare in the ground ; 
the claim was referred to arbitration, and a decifion was 
pronounced in favour of Baloo. He conlequently re¬ 
paired to the land, and was ploughing it, when he was 
interrupted by his opponent. The words of Baloo were 
as follows : “ I became angry, and enraged at his forbid¬ 
ding me ; and bringing my own little daughter Apmu- 
nya, who was only a year and a half old, to the laid field, 
I killed her with my 1’word.” 
A third inftance was an aft of matricide, perpetrated 
by Beechuk and Adher, two Brahmins, and zemindars, 
or proprietors of landed ellates, the extent of which did 
not not exceed eight acres. The village in which they 
redded was the property of many other zemindars. A 
difpute, which originated in a competition for the general 
fuperintendence of the revenues of the village, had long 
lubfifted between the two brothers and a perfon named 
Gowry ; and the officer of government, who had conferred 
this charge upon the latter, was intimidated into a revo¬ 
cation of it, by the threats of the mother of Beechuk and 
Adher to fwallow poifon, as well as to the transfer of the 
management to the two Brahmins. By the lame means 
of intimidation he was deterred from inveftigating the 
complaints of Gowry, which had been referred to his 
enquiry by his fuperior authority. But the immediate 
caule which inftigated the Brahmins to murder their mo¬ 
ther, was an aft of violence, faid to have been commit¬ 
ted by the emiflaries of Gowry, employed by him for a 
different purpol’e, in entering their houfe, during their 
abfence at night, and carrying off forty rupees, the pro¬ 
perty of Beechuk and Adher, from the apartments of 
their women. Beechuk firll returned to his houfe, where 
■his mother, his wife, and his filter-in-law, related what 
had happened. He immediately conducted his mother to 
an adjacent rivulet, where, being joined in the grey of the 
morning by his brother Adher, they called out aloud to 
the people of the village, that, although they would over¬ 
look the affault as an aft which could not be remedied, 
the forty rupees mull be returned. To this'exclamation 
no anfwer was received ; and Beechuk, without further 
helitation, drew his fcymetar, and at one ftroke fevered 
his mother’s head from her body, with the profeffed view, 
Vol.X. No. 648. 
as avowed both by parent and fon, that the mother's fpi- 
rit, excited by the beating of a large drum during forty 
days, might for ever haunt, torment, and purfuc to death, 
Gowry, and the others concerned with him. The laft 
words which the mother pronounced were, e ' that fhe 
would blaft the faid Gowry, and thofe connefted with 
him.” 
The judicial records contain a cafe of great enormity, 
in which five women were put to death for the fuppofed 
crime of forcery. Three men of the call of Soontaar were 
in 1792 indifted for the murder of five women ; the prs- 
foners without hefitation confefled the crime with which 
they were charged, and pleaded in their defence that with 
their tribes it was the immemorial praftice and cuftom to 
try perfons notorious for witchcraft. That for this pur- 
pol'e an affiembly was convened of thofe of the fame tribe, 
from far and near; and, if after due inveftigation the 
charge was proved, the forcerers were put to death, and 
no complaint was ever preferred on this account to the 
ruling power. That the women who were killed had 
undergone the prefcribed form of trial, were duly con- 
vifted of caufing the death of the fon of one of the pri- 
foners by witchcraft, and had been put to death by the 
prifoners, in conformity to the fentence of the allembly- 
The profecutors, who were the relations of the deceafed 
women, declared they had no charge to prefer againll the 
prifoners, being latisfied that their relations had really 
praf fifed forcery. The cuftom pleaded by the prifoners 
was fully fubftantiated by the tellimony of a great num ¬ 
ber of witnefl'es, who recited lpecific fafts in l’upport of 
it, without any denial or difagreenient; and, from 'the 
collective evidence exhibited in the courfe of the enquiry, 
the following curious and extraordinary circumstances 
appeared : That the lucceffive demife of three or four 
young people in the village, led to a fufpicion of forcery 
as the caufe of it; and the inhabitants, taking alarm, were 
upon the watch to deteft the witches. They were gene¬ 
rally difcovered dancing naked at midnight by the light 
of a lamp, with a broom tied round their waifls, either 
near the houfe of a lick perfon, or on the outiide of the 
village. 
But to afcertain with a greater degree of certainty the 
perlbns guilty of praftifing witchcraft, the three follow¬ 
ing modes are adopted : 
Firlt. Branches of the Saul tree, marked with the names 
of all the females in the village, whether married or un¬ 
married, who have attained the age of twelve years, are 
planted in the water in the morning, for the fpace of four 
hours and a half; and the withering of any of thefe 
branches is proof of witchcraft againll the perfon whofe 
name is annexed to it. 
Secondly. Small portions of rice enveloped in cloths, 
marked as above, are placed in a neft of white ants ; the 
conlumption of the rice in any of the bags, eflablifhes 
forcery againll the woman whole name it bears. 
Thirdly. Lamps are lighted at night; water is placed 
in cups made of leaves, and muflard-leed and oil is poured, 
drop by drop, into the water, whilll the name of each 
woman in the village is pronounced ; the appearance of 
the ffiadovv of any woman on the water, during this cere¬ 
mony, proves her a witch. 
Such are the general rules for afcertaining thofe who 
praftile witchcraft. In the inflances quoted, the witnels 
lwore, and probably believed, that all the proofs againll 
the unfortunate women had been duly verified : they af- 
ferted in evidence, that the branches marked with the 
names of the five women accufed were withered ; that the 
rice in the bags having their lpecific names, was devoured 
by the white ants, whilll that’in the other bags remained 
untouched ; that their fhadows appeared on the water, 
on the oil being poured upon it whilll their names were 
pronounced ; and farther, that they were feen dancing at 
midnight in the fituation above defcribed. It is difficult 
to conceive that this coincidence of proof could have 
been made plauiible to the groffell ignorance, if experience 
P p did 
