WITCHCRAFT is believed in by all tho races of the south and east of Asia. It still lingers even in civilised Britain. Amongst the Musalman we find the first distinct expression of the religious condemnation of all magic) aa a sin, because it is treason against God. But sorcery of all kinds is known and inceasantly practised. Much busineas is done in amulets, charms, veils, exorcism, magio mirrors, cabalistic figures, divination, sortilege, and the like. But all such proceedings and devices are opposed to the true spirit of Islam, and aro condemned by Musalman divines. For the admission of other supernatural beings into any kind of partnership with God, in the exercise of miraculous powers, which aro his attributes, or the performance of wonder! without calling on God's name or ascribing the glory to hint, aro matters upon which Muhammadanism looks with a very unfavourable eyo. The Banjara race aro confirmed believers in witchcraft. In one of their Bemr encampn3ents near Ithamganm, a headman had lost some of his cattle by death in a most mysterious manner. He came to the conclusion that there was a witch in the encampment, and resorted to the priest for advice, and agreed to give him 60 rupees. The priest performed a number of mummeries, and then pointed out an old woman as the person who had caused all the destruction to the cattle. The woman was a wife of another headman, was seventy years of age, and was tho mother of ten children. 1Vhen the husband of the woman was informed of the revelations of the priest, he told his wife of tho same, and although sho protested most carneatly against what was said, she Wail not believed, and the husband and two of his sons led her to a lonely place in the jungle, and strangled her with a rope. The two sons then dug a gmve and buried the poor woman. The father and his sons we,re condemned to death.
So late as the year 1863, an old Mall of 80 was swung for a wizard in the hill stream at Little Hedinghamt in Essex, and died from it. In the wild tract in the extreme south-weet of Udaipur, in 1871, tho headman (Gounthee) of a Bhil village was taken ill, and one Lemba Bhagnri, a bhopa or witch-finder, was employed to dis cover the witch who had caused his sickness. That mania account of what happened, given before the Political Assistant at Kotra, was aa Dhuna Doongri took a handful of grain, and, having waved it over the body of the Gounthee Sukra, asked me to look at the grain. I looked at it, but I never spoke or said a word, nor did I show that any one was a witch. I remained per fectly silent. On this, Champa, Knolo, fund the four sons of Sukra said to me, " 111y aro you silent and do not spol? We have already arranged everything : Deeta, Lore wife, is the witch, and she has made the Gounthee ; let us go and put her to the test." On this every one rose, went and seized Deeta, and took her to the water and put her to tho water test (which is the following.:— A bamboo is embedded at the bottom of any piece of water. The accused goes to the bamboo, holda it and by it descends to the bottom. In the tnean time one of tho villagers discharges an arrow frorn his bow, and another villager runs to pick it up and bring it back to the place it was launched from. If the imfortunate woman is able to remain lender water until this is done, she is declared innocent, but if she comes up to breathe before tho arrow is returned to the bowman, she ia a true witch, and must be swuug as such). The bow man IraS Kumla Kasota, his father's name Kur hingh, of village Khara. The fetchers of the arrow were two of Sukra's sons, Kumla and Joyta. I was also present at the time of test,. .The woman failed in the test, and thus became a witch. At this a great outcry was raised, and the woman was seized and tied up and taken away. I re turned to my home.' Other evidence, however, showed that, after looking at the grain, Lembo. had declared Deeta the vvitch. What happened
then may best be told in Deeta's own words :— Seven Bhils of Jhanjur and Kumla of another village came to my house and told me I was a witch, and that I had made Sukra Gounthee They seized me, saying, "Come and undergo an ordeal." I agreed, and went with them. They put me to the test of taking out a rupee from heated oil. I twice took out the rupee from the burning oil without injury to myself, and was innocent. They allowed me to go home. At the time of undergoing the ordeal, my husband Deeta, Loi and his elder brother Lalla were present on my part. A month after this the above-named seven Bhils again came to my house, seized me, and said they would put me to the water test. They took me to the river and told me to perfonn the test. I refused, and did not enter the water ; they then took me to a tamarind tree behind Sukra's house, and applied a bandage of recl chillies over my eyes, tied me to a rope head downwards from the tree, and began to swing me backwards and forwards. They swung me for two whole days ; the third day they swung me till 12 o'clock A.M. They, thinking me then dead, undid the ropes, and left ine there. Budda, Paigee, who belongs to my father's village, and whom I call brother, took me to his house and attended to my wounds and my inanimate state. Having a little life in me, I recovered.' The rope, it appeared, had been tied round her ankles. During the swinging the Bhils kept on shouting and urging her to confess. They used to take her down at night, but not to untie the rope, and they gave her food. Two of the neighbouring Thakurs tried to stop the swinging, but the Bhils would not obey ; but at last a period was put to further torture, either by the influence of the Mewar Vakil, or by the impression that its victim was already dead. The Political Assistant sen tenced Lemba to five years' imprisonment in the Ajmir jail. The punishment of the villagers who swung the woman had been cOmmitted by the Durbar to a neighbouring chieftain, and he executed it in such a barbarous manner as to call • for severe animadversion on the part of the British political officers.
In 1872, in the Bhil country, a Baniya of Kushul garh., by name Fatta, was very ill, and he and his family fancied he was ewitched. The Baniya himself believed that his 1 ver was being devoured by the woman Chundoo, d cribed to be 70 to 80 years.of age, whose cattle be ad previously taken in satisfaction of a debt. He onsequentli sum moned, from a neighbouring vi age, the witch finder Vosta, who performed the sual incanta tions. called Kajlee, and confirmed the Baniya's suspicions ; and Badria Tarri, one of the Bhils present, recommended that Chundoo should be swung.. Chundoo was sent for, taken to the kotwah, and confined there. After an interval of a few days, some Bhils were summoned, and paid to swing Chundoo EIS a witch at a little distance outside the city. The poor woinan was taken to a banyan tree and swung from her wrists, her eyes, as is customary on such occasions, being bandaged with red chillies. The swinging was carried out under the direction of Ali Kotwal, the bhopa being also present on each day to obtain the witch's confession. She refused to confess or exorcise the Baniya, whom she upbraided for having taken her cattle. After swinging for four days, the unfortunate creature died, and orders were given to the Bhils to bury her. The swing ing of alleged witches was of common occurrence in the Bbil tracts before the Mewar Bhil corps was raised at Khairwara, but rarely happens now a-days. The belief in witcbes is •widespread. Juvini tells us that from thne immemorial women had been addicted to witchcraft in Turke stan and Transoxiana ; witches were called in to sick people, and practised spells and incantations by which they pretended to drive away diseases. —P. Arminius Vambery, Bolchara, p. 143; Pioneer.