Buddhists of Ceylon still resort to the incantatiom of the devil-dancers in case of danger or emer gency.
The educated European of the 19th century can not realize the dread in which the Hindu stands ot devils. They haunt his paths from the cradle to the grave. The Tamil proverb in fact says, The devil who seizes you in the cradle, goes with you to the funeral pile.' The chief anxiety of the Tamil father, when his child is about to be brought into the world, is to see that the leaves of the margosa tree are carefully. fixed over the thresbold, to prevent the devils from entering and ,seizing upon the child at the moment of birth. If he have lost two children before, and this be a son, a bracelet is placed upon the child's arm as a safe guard, a golden ring is fixed in its nose, and it is solemnly dedicated to some particular demon, who is entreated to protect it. The child is then perhaps named Payeu (the Devil's Own), a name of frequent occurrence in S. India. The ring is allowed to remain in the nose till the child is grown, a great feast is then made by the parents, and sacrifices of sheep or cocks offered at the shrine of the tutelary demon. The periods of marriage and pregnancy are times at which devils are supposed to be especially malignant, and ceremonies are then performed to avert the influ ence of the evil eye, ill omens, and devils. In so slight a matter as the boring of a child's ears for ear-rings, it is considered necessary to propitiate Karuppan with the sacrifice of a goat, or a cock at least. A European seeing a crowd assembled under an odiya tree (Odina pinnata), which the massive iron chain hanging from its trunk be tokened to be dedicated to Karuppan, rode up, and found there the quivering body of a ram just sacrificed to the dernon. The head had been severed from the body by one blow of a large sickle - shaped weapon, which was courteously handed for inspection. It was made, handle as well as blade, of native iron, and bad lately been presented to the shrine by a devotee. The sacrificer had made the present offering on the auspicious occasion of an infant son having his ears bored. The bead of the ram fell, as usual, to the share of the officiating piiest, while the body, slung on a pole, and carried on the shoulders of two men, amid the beating of tom-toms was taken home to furnish the evening feast. No temple was near, but on a pedestal under the tree reposed a hideous object made of potter's ware. This particular demon is supposed to be, when propitiated, very liberal in the bestowal of benefits ; and the pujari mentioned to the looker-on that if he would make a sacrifice of a goat or two, he would guarantee that bis devil should obtain for him a lucrative appointment under Government 1 The sacrifice of goats is almost continuous,—sometitnes as many as twenty goats are sacrificed at one time. The flesh is generally cut up, cooked, and eaten on the spot ; and round the shrines may often be seen a number of small earthen ovens. The strongest oath a Sudra can take is to swear by the most famous devil of the district ; and often, before a lawsuit is carried into court, the aggrieved party vrill say to his opponent, ' I will be satisfied if you will go to such a demon's shrine, and there, on the justice of your cause, blow out the flame of a lamp in the presence of the Kali.' A man who would not hesitate a moment to commit perjury in court, would never dare to perform this cere mony knowing his cause to be unjust, for then he firmly believes that he would immediately be stricken down by the demon. So swears Latinus in the Eneid : Tango aras, medios loos et numina testor.' Under this ever-present fear of demons, the Hindu often hesitates to go even a hundred yards in the dark. He will not enter a forest alone ; he fears to stand on the borders of a lonely lake, for there dwells the spirit which in Scotland is known by the name of the Kelpie, and it is near the water where, he has heard, may be often seen in the darkness of the night the fiery-mouthed devil,' iguis-fatuus. But most of all he fears the sandy plain, for it is a notion thoroughly oriental, that the unclean spirit walketh through dry places,' which are called in Tamil, Pai devil - deserts. Devils are especially said t,o abound in the sandy wastes between Madura and Tinnevelly, where the mirage (in Tamil, Pai Ter, the devil's chariot), is frequently seen, and is said to be produced by them. When a fire takes place in a village, it is owing to the wrath of the village devil. His worship has been neglected, or some insult has been offered to him, and he thirsts for revenge. Near the village of Vediarpuratn, in the
Tanjore district, for about four or five years accidental fires had been of annual occurrence, and it was commonly reported to be owing to the anger of Aiyanar, a demon whose shrine is situated to the west of the village. A banyan tree near the spot, dedicated to him, was some years ago felled without his permission, and since that Hine the enraged demon, refusing to be propitiated by the usual sacrifices, yearly burned down a house or two. Many races besides Hindus are very prone to make vows in times of sickness. Formerly, we are told, people used to go from all parts of England to Canterbury, The holy blissful martyr for to seek, That them hath holpen when that they were sick.' The Hindu makes a vow to go to a, particular shrine, and there pour offerings of oil and spices. If a diseased member have been restored, often times a golden image of it is rnade and presented to the shrine. A person suffered from a serious affection of the eyes. A vow was made that in case of recovery two golden eyes should be made and presented to the shrine of Mari Amman. In like manlier, the Philistines, we read, when afflicted with emerods, thought, after consulting with their soothsayers, that they could best propitiate the God of Israel by making and offer ing to him golden images of the emerods. As may be expected, the devils are most busy in the last scene of all That ends this strange eventful history; ' and a young girl fears to cross a dying nian, lest his latest breath should pa.ss into her, in which case she would be possessed beyond recovery. For a similar reason, a Hindu at the point of death, is always removed to expire without the house, which would otherwise be haunted. As the corpse is carried away, parched rice is scattered along the route of the funeral procession. It is believed that the devils will stop to pick it up, and it is considered advisable to keep them so engaged tidl next sunrise, for should they return to the house before that time, they would probably not be satisfied without another victim. A native proverb says, A Saturday's corpse goea not alone.' When, therefore, a death takes place on a Saturday, to prevent evil consequences, a live cock is ,taken with tho corpse to the burning ground, and it is there given away t,o some person of low caste, or, like the scapegoat of old, allowed to escape into the adjacent jungle. Brahmans, averse to bloody sacrifices, substitute for a cock the bolt of the door of the house, which they burn with the corpse. When a dead body is buried, instead of being burnt, as in the case of Suniyasi (ascetic devotees), salt is placed in the grave, and frequently with it the leaves of tho margosa tree, so famous as a charm against devils. Salt was till recently also in England placed on the corpse of Roman and Lutheran Christians, for the avowed purpose of keeping it secure from the evil one, and the practice is still said to linger in the Highlands of bcotland. It was seen in 1833, placed over the dead body of a. young girl at Greenwich. The Ilighlanders, indeed, in many of their superstitions are remarkably similar to the Hindus. They formerly planted the rowan or mountain ash, regardiug it as a safeguard against devils, just as the Hindus regard the margosa. Throughout India, the belief is as common as it was formerly in Europe, that a man who dies a sudden or a violent death becomes a demon. All the women in the district are immediately possessed by him, and innumerable mischiefs result. A Brahman, accidentally drowned in the river Cauvery, about the year 1870, became in consequence a Brahma Rakshasa, one of the fiercest of demons. An officer of artillery, killed at the battle of Assaye, was buried beneath a tree ne,ar the village, and his spirit is worshipped there to the present (lay. Dr. Caldwell mentions the case of Captain Pole, an English officer who was mortally wounded at the taking of the Travancore lines in A.D. 1809, and has been invoked by the Shamus His worship consisted in the offering to his manes of spirituous liquors and cheroots. About the middle of the 19th century, a Brahman who was sentenced to be hanged at Madras, for the murder of another Brahman going on pilgrimage from I3enares to Rameswaram, threatened that though they were about to hang him he would not die, but would become a Brahma liakshasa, and torment all those who hitd given evidence against him.