The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-10-25
BLACK ART IN INDIA.
A Country Where Sorcerers Live
and Thrive.

luefe IS scarcely VIlldpo IN Eastern
and Southern India that does not pos
sess It's witch, to whom terrible powers
are attributed by the popular mind.
The witches, they say, can suck the
blood of healthy children; and the
anxious mother directly she sees the
witch approach, catches up her child
and mutters some charm to save the
dear one from being sucked to death.
Of Ofcourse the best antidote to the occult
influence OF the dreaded hags is the
gift OF few copper coins or some sort
OF aims. But there are other means
employed to counteract their malignity.
They are sometimes detected by salt
being placed on their heads, which
causes them to turn round and mutter
ineoherent syllables. Sometimes the
trembling mother spits ON the head of
her child, or gently bites his little
nnger, In order to render him witch
proof. No woman of the lower orders
VINO lives in a village infested by a
witch would venture to leave her house
with her child until she had made her.
sell and her child safe by putting cer-
tam mark on his forehead.
There are various modes of treatment
Tor persons supposed to be under the
lnfnenee OF witch. The forehead of
2 child suffering from illness brought
on BY witch's curse is sometimes
marked with burnt tumeric. Often the
mother, muttering some spells, sprin-
kles water over her child and rubs his
iofenead over with burnt wicks of
earthen lamps fed with mustard oil.
sometimes branches of particular trees
are waved over the patient, who is
made to chew the leaves of plum trees.
Dut should these simple remedies fail,
as Iney often do, to produce any effect
On the bewitched child, what would
happen then to the poor sufferer?
inere Is no need to be in despair in
inns matter, for, as the dock grows side
ov SIDE with the nettle, so in India
mere lives close by the witch the sor
eerer, the practitioner of the black art.
VINO is always called in nwhen the simple
remedies fail
Like the witches, the sorcerers are
peileved to possess great occult powers:
uas unlike the former, they often use
'aelr skill for beneficent purposes. The
coihmon sorcerers in India are a peo-
pie OF very low caste, or no caste at all
oeionglng mainly to the aboriginal
races who are still outside the pale of
ninooolsm. Their treatment, though
oi'en violent, does not in modern times
result In death. as it did in some authen-
~ e,eated cases which happened years ago.
- sorcerer, taking his place in front
Y ms patient, with flowers in his hand
aaa lamp and incense burning before
A'i gives burnt tumeric and charmed
mustard seed to the bewitehed person
70 smell, and dashes cold water with
sioience upon his face. Sometimes the
s,eaement OF the patient at the hands
sorcerer vicariously tortures the
"a'ch- Thus it is said that in one in
s'snce, upon the sorcerer squeezing the
salee OF a certain plant into the ewes of
oewitched child, the witch immedi-
aseiy complained of pain in the ewes.
'l,,eh sne lost. and the child was cured.
Dg far the most formidable magic
poWers are. however, attributed to a
.,ass , Of Brahmins, who are. par excel
,enee, the professors of the black art in
.aula. The Brahmin sorcerers are
sersed in the practice of the spells and
.arlns 8. which, with the ACCOMPANYING
tues. are described in the Sans.rit
seoks' called tantras. The key-note
these is struck in a well-known
souplet, which. done into English. runs
mus; The whole world is in the
,h re"er OF the gods, and the gods are in
.ae power of magic; magic is in the
soWer OF the Brahmins, and therefore
sae brahmin is himself the god r.
sas' not be forgotten. however, that
spase OF this oraeular deliverance.
lu sne decentralization of the macical
sleils aud charms in several Sanslxrit
saalses and their commentaries. the