Volume 1

Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman].

  • William Henry Sleeman
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles and recollections of an Indian official / [Sir William Henry Sleeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    old woman’s spell, but in vain. He died, and the cock never ceased crowing at intervals up to the hour of his death.” “ And was Mr. Fraser convinced?” “I never heard, but suppose he must have been.” “ Who ate the livers of the victims ? The witches them- selves, or the evil spirits with whom they had dealings ? “The evil spirits ate the livers, but they are set on to do so by the witches, who get them into their power by such accursed sacrifices and offerings. They will often dig up young children from their graves, bring them to life, and allow these devils to feed upon their livers, as falconers allow their hawks to feed on the breasts of pigeons. You ‘ sahib log ’ (European gentlemen) will not believe all this, but it is, nevertheless, all very true.”^ The belief in sorcery among these people owes its origin, in a great measure, to the diseases of the liver and spleen, to which the natives, and particularly the children, are much subject in the jungly parts of Central India. From these affections children pine away and die, without showing any external marks of disease. Their death is attributed to witchcraft, and any querulous old woman, who has been in the habit of murmuring at slights and ill- treatment in the neighbourhood, is immediately set dow n as the cause. Men who practice medicine among them are very commonly supposed to be at the same time wizards. Seeking to inspire confidence in their prescriptions by repeating prayers and incantations over the patient, or o\ei the medicine they give him, they make him believe that they derive aid from supernatural power; and the patient concludes that those who can command these pow^ers to ^ Of the supposed powers and dispositions of watches among the Romans we have horrible pictures in the 5th Ode of the 5th Book of Horace, and in the 6th Book of Lucan’s Pharsalia. [W. H. S.]^ The reference to Horace should be to the 5th Epode. The passage in the Pharsalia, Book VI, lines 420-830, describes the proceedings of Thes- salian watches.
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