The Koh soung Nats, twelve in number, six good and six bad, six male and six female, provide a genius for each person. Min mahgyi is the guardian Nat of the house, and usually takes up his abode on the top of a house post, a pot of water being kept in the verandah for his use. Each village also has a guardian Nat. None of the lower class of Talaing would think of eating a morsel without first holding up his platter in the air and praying to the village Nat.
The spirit 3Ioung Iwn Gyi is greatly feared. He lives in water, and causes death. They believe that persons who are executed, or have met with a violent death, become Nats, and haunt the places where they were killed. Every district has a Nat thoo-nge or spirit woman, called Nat-mehrnma, who is consulted, and who dances a.t the Nat feasts.
With the Burmese, on the foundation of a new capital, there are always a certain number of people buried alive. They are supposed to be come Nat-thehn, that their spirits haunt the place where they were put to death, and attack all persons approaching with malevolent inten tions. In 1860, when the foundations of Man dalay city wall were laid, fifty-two persons were entombed, three under each of the twelve city oates, one under each of the yalace gates and at tbhe corners of the timber stockade, and four under the throne itself. By 1880 the virtue had largely evaporated, and it was resolved to replace them by six hundred victims ; but the outcry in Europe restrained the king, and only a small number were sacrificed.
The Muhammadans of the S.E. of Asia believe in spirits, and in the science of dawat or exorcism, to which they have recourse to command the presence of genii or demons who, when it is required of them, cause anything to take place. The genii spirits are believed to reside in the lowest firmament, and possess the power of ren dering themselves visible to human beings in any form they please. The evil spirits are called shaitan. The spirits of all Muhammadans are supposed to rest in the graves till the resurrection ; being laid in the grave, the two angels on Nakir and Mankir interrogate the departed as to his life. Dogs, women, and horses are not allowed inside their burial-grounds. Annually, oblations, called Ooroos, are offered in the name of Mahomed, or in the names of the Pir or spiritual guides, or in the names of the Wali or saint. Khajah Khizr, a Muhammadan saint, often appears to travellers in different guises, but generally- as an old man.
The people of Sind believe in the Rijal-ul-gbaib ; in Jin or genii ; in Bbut, ghosts or disembodied s npirits • i Ghul, or demons of the wilderness : in Parr, fairies and in Dev, Rakas, and Pap; powerful fien4 corresponding with the Arab Marid.' The Dakini is the same as the w itch of Europe, usually an old woman, decrepit, poor, of humble family, and angry disposition. She has the power of turning. men into beasts, killing cattle, flying to any distance on a tree by reciting a mand (magical formula), and tnounting hymna. The Bandh and Mann are frightful beings, half female, half-hellisb. They live in the bills and jungles, where they frequently appear to travellers, are covered with hair like bears, have large pend ent lips, and live on fruits and herbs. The Shir is a creature of Satanic nature. He, generally speaking, appears like a low-caste man, very dark, tall, and frightful; sometimes as a headless body. He lives in the =Urn or burial-ground, where he lights fires, and amuses himself by throwing the brands about, frightening folk by vociferating their proper names, or pursuing them in the form of some beast. Hence their fear of approaching a burial-ground by night. The shaitan of Sind is only seen by learned and religious men ; to them he appears as a young man of white complexion and handsome form, which he can change at discretion. In Sind, popular superstition bas created the Marhun Machhi (mermen and mer maids). The science of Osteomancy is the Ilm el-Aktaf (knowledge of the shoulder-blades) of the pagan Arabs and some Bedouin tribes of the present day, the Ilm-i-Shaneh of the Persians and Afghans, and is known to the shepherd Sindi and Baluchi by the name of Phannia-jo fannu. The instrument of divination is the scapula of a sheep divested of its muscles and integuments, the speal-baue of the Scotch. The or palmistry, is common among Mus lims and Hindus, but better known in Cutch than in Sind. The Sona-jo-Ilm, or knowledge of omens, taken from the flight of birds, the appear ance of beasts, and other similar phenomena, closely resembles the art of the Indian Thugs. The Baluchi are considered great adepts in this branch of the occult sciences, and the Sindi have a short treatise upon the subject called Sungun-namo.—Rajasthan, p. 662 ; Burton's Scinde; Ward's Hindoos, p. 140 ; Forbes' Rasa rnala, ii. 378 ; Lubbock's Civilisation; The BUT171(171.