Folklore of the Santal Parganas - Cecil Henry Bompas (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

CLXXV. (Of Dains and Ojhas.)

 

Once upon a time Marang Buru decided that he would teach men

witchcraft. In those days there was a place at which men used to

assemble to meet Marang Buru and hold council with him: but they only

heard his voice and never saw his face. One day at the assembly when

they had begun to tell Marang Buru of their troubles he fixed a day

and told them to come to him on it, dressed all in their cleanest

clothes and he would teach them witchcraft.

 

So the men all went home and told their wives to wash their clothes

well against the fixed day, as they were going to Thakur to learn

witchcraft. The women of course all began to discuss this new plan

among themselves and the more they talked of it the less they liked it;

it seemed to them that if the men were to get this new strange power

it would make them more inclined to despise and bully women than ever;

so they made a plot to get the better of their husbands. They arranged

that each woman should brew some rice beer and offer it to her husband

as he was starting to meet Marang Buru and beg him to drink some lest

his return should be delayed. They foresaw that the men would not be

able to resist the drink; and that having started they would go on till

they were dead drunk: it would then be easy for the women to dress

themselves like men and go off to Marang Buru and learn witchcraft

in place of their husbands. So said, so done;--the women duly made

their husbands drunk and then put on _pagris_ and _dhoties_ and stuck

goats' beards on their faces and went off to Marang Buru to learn

witchcraft. Marang Buru did not detect the imposition and according

to his promise taught them all the incantations of witchcraft.

 

After the women had come home with their new knowledge their

husbands gradually recovered their senses and bethought them of their

appointment with Marang Buru. So they hurried off to the meeting place

and asked him to teach them what he had promised. "Why, I taught it

all to you this morning," answered Marang Buru, "what do you mean by

coming to me again?" The men could not understand what he meant and

protested that they had not been to him at all in the morning. "Then

you must have told your wives what I was going to do!" This they could

not deny: "I see," said Marang Buru "then they must have played a trick

on you and learnt the _mantras_ in your place," At this the men began

to lament and begged that they might be taught also: but Marang Buru

said that this was impossible; he could only teach them a very little;

their wives had reaped the crop and they could only have the gleanings;

so saying, he taught them the art of the _ojha_ and in order that

they might have the advantage of their wives in one respect and be

able to overawe them he also taught them the craft of the _jan_ and

with that they had to be content. This is why only women are witches.

 

 

 

 

CLXXVI. (Initiation into Witchcraft.)

 

When girls are initiated into witchcraft they are taken away by

force and made to lead tigers about. This makes them fearless. They

are then taken to all the most powerful _bongas_ in succession; and

are taught to invoke them, as school boys are taught lessons, and to

become possessed _(rum)_. They are also taught _mantras_ and songs and

by degrees they cease to be afraid. The novice is made to come out of

the house with a lamp in her hand and a broom tied round her waist;

she is then conducted to the great _bongas_ one of whom approves of her

and when all have agreed she is married to that _bonga_. The _bonga_

pays the usual brideprice and applies _sindur_ to her forehead. After

this she can also marry a man in the usual way and he also pays the

bride price. When a girl has learnt everything she is made to take

her degree (_sid atang_) by taking out a man's liver and cooking it

with rice in a new pot; then she and the young woman who is initiating

her, eat the feast together; a woman who has once eaten such a stew

is completely proficient and can never forget what she has learnt.

 

This is the way in which girls learn witchcraft; and if any girl

refuses to take the final step and will not eat men she is caused to

go mad or die. Those however who have once eaten men have a craving

for it.

 

Generally it is only women who are witches; but there are men who have

learnt witchcraft and there are others who without being initiated

have kept company with witches. For instance in Simra village there

is Chortha who was once a servant of the Parganna. He says that the

Parganna's wife used to take him out with her at night. The women used

to sacrifice fowls and goats and make him skin them and cut them up:

he had then to roast cakes of the flesh and give them to the Parganna's

wife who distributed them among the other women.

 

Sometimes also witches take a man with them to their meetings to beat

the drum: and sometimes if a man is very much in love with a girl he

is allowed to go with them and is taught witchcraft. For instance

there was a man who had a family of daughters and no son and so he

engaged a man servant by the year to work for him.

 

After being some years in service this man servant one night was for

some reason unusually late in letting the buffaloes out to graze,

and while doing so he saw all the women of the household assembled

out of doors; they came up to him and told him not to be afraid

and promised to do him no harm provided he told no one what he had

seen. Two or three days later the young women of the house invited

him to go to a witches' meeting. He went but felt rather frightened

the whole time; however nothing happened to him, so he got over his

fear and after that he used to go with them quite willingly and learnt

all about witchcraft. At last they told him that he must _sid atang_

by "eating" a human being. He objected that he was an orphan and so

there was no relation whom he could eat. This was a difficulty that

seemed insurmountable; and he suggested that he should be excused the

full course and taught only a little such as how to "eat" fowls. The

women agreed but it was arranged that to deceive people he should go

for two or three days and study with a _jan guru_ and be initiated by

him. Thus it would be thought that he learnt his magic from the _guru_

but really he learnt it from the witches who taught him everything

except how to "eat" human beings. He learnt how to make trees wither

away and come to life again; and to make rain fall where he wished

while any place he chose remained quite dry; he learnt to walk upon

the surface of water without getting wet; he could exorcise hail so

that none would touch his house though it fell all around. For a joke

he could make stools stick fast to his friends when they sat on them;

and anyone he scolded found himself unable to speak properly. All

this we have seen him do; but it was no one's business to question

him to find out how much he really knew.

 

Once at the shield and sword dance they cast a spell on a youth till

his clothes fell off him in shreds and he was ashamed to dance. Then

this servant had the pieces of cloth brought to him; and he covered

them with his own cloth and mumbled some _mantras_ and blew on it and

the pieces joined together and the cloth was as good as ever. This

we have seen ourselves.

 

He lived a long time with his master who found him a wife; but because

his first child died he left the place and went to live near Amrahat

where he is now.

 

Another case is Tipu of Mohulpahari. They say that an old witch Dukkia

taught him to be an _ojha_. No one has dared to ask him whether he

also learnt witchcraft from her but he himself admits that she taught

him to be an _ojha_.

 

Although it is true that there are witches and that they "eat" men

you will never see them except when you are alone.

 

The son-in-law of Surai of Karmatane village, named Khade, died from

meeting witches; he told us all about it as he lay dying. He was

coming home with some other men: they had all had a little too much

to drink and so they got separated. Khade was coming along alone and

had nearly reached his house when he saw a crowd of witches under a

tree. He went up and asked who they were. Thereupon they turned on

him and seized him and dragged him away towards Maluncha. There they

did something to him and let him go. Next morning he was seized with

purging and by mistake some of the witches' vengeance fell also on

the other men and they were taken ill too. They however recovered,

but Khade died. If you meet witches you die, but not of course if

they take you with them of their own will and teach you their craft.

 

 

CLXXVII. (Witchcraft.)

 

Girls are taught witchcraft when they are young and are married to a

_bonga_ husband. Afterwards when they marry a man they still go away

and visit the _bonga_ and when they do so they send in their place a

_bonga_ woman exactly like them in appearance and voice; so that the

husband cannot tell that it is not his real wife. There is however a

way of discovering the substitution; for if the man takes a brand from

the fire and burns the woman with it, then if it is really a _bonga_

and not his wife she will fly away in a flame of fire.