Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-02-02

Rites and Rituals OF Hindustanese


In no part of the world at the
| present time is the belief in
demonologv. or devil-lore. and witch
craft so widely prevalent rs among
the native population of England's
Eastern Empire, says writer in the
San Francisco E1an1iner Through
the length and breadth of Hindustan
worshippers of the devil are to be
found, forming numerous sects whose
doctrines are essentially similar,
whether they inhabit the Coromandel
coast. the Highlands of Central India
or the borders of Afghanistan. Be-
tween these widely divergent points of
/ the great Indian Peninsula there can
not have been for ages, if there ever
had been much INSTRUMENTATION
OF the people, who are in many in
stances ethnologically different and
speak 4 language entirely foreign to
each other.
The fundamental doctrine of the
devil worshippers' creed. as gathered
| by the writer in conversation with
members of the sect in various
parts of Hindustan, is that If is inn
proper, if not actually blasphemous.
for human beings to offer PRAYER or
sacrifice to propitiate divinity whose
| merciful and forgiving benignity is in
conceivably beyond all his other at
tributes, and who could not, even if
he would, do aught that is inimical
to the present or future happiness,
| spiritual or material, of beings created
after his own image and loved with
undyinG and immeasurable love- With
o No h latx- rNf+
mental cunning incidental TO the
oriental intellect, they will expound
in verbose and highly imaginative
language the grounds on which are
based the reasonings that warrant be-
| lief in their creed. To the devil, as
the Omnopitent incarnation of evil,
they attribute essentials which are
plausibly advanced to give color to
the doctrines of their sect. Shaitan,
as named in HinduStan. is, according
to his worshippers Unfortunately egotisti-
cal, and they, with the hope of gain
ing his good favor in their behalf,
tlattcr him by the most elaborate
ceremonials and fervid prayers, con-
Quoted with all the surroundings incl
dental to Eastern pageantrieS, religious
and otherwise.
The ritual of devil worship, as well
as the tenets of the creed, modify con-
siderably, according to the varying
nditions--ciimatic and geographical,
which obtain from the perpetually
snOw-clad Himalayas to the torrid
regions of Cape Comorin and along to
the equatorial line. The doctrine of
devil worship is not confined to the
low or illiterate classes of the people
1t prevails more or less extensively
among those oriental intellectual
dreamers who read the institutes of
Manu- in the original and discuss alb
struse theological and metaphysical
theories in Sanscri t. To the mind OF
the willy Hindoo and the bodily
effeminate. but mentally active fol-
lowers of the Prophet, occult teachings
of the most visionary school have al
ways had an irresistible fascination
and the spread of European civilization
and the introduction of the English
educational system has increased
rather than diminished the oriental
fondness for semi-comatose speculation
in the realms of religious thought.
Witchcraft also predominates to
an extraordinary extent among the
ignorant classes, which means nine
tenths of the population, and the en-
tire social life both of Hindoos and
Mussulmans in the mofussel or
country districts is strongly i'm
pregnated with the doctrines of devil
worship and belief in witches and
witchlorc and all the superstitions
which surround the recognized pro-
fession OF the black art. Necroman-
GERS and adopts in divination are
numerous, and their persons are held
sacred and their supernatural powers
are acknowledged by the people as if
religion of Brahma or Mollaho ex-
pounding the laws of the Koran.