Punishment of Witches.
The method by which witches are punished displays a diabolical ingenuity. The Indian newspapers a short time ago recorded six out of nine murders in the Sambalpur District as due to “the superstition, which is so general, that the spread of cholera is due to the sorcery of some individual, whose evil influence can be nullified if he be beaten with rods of the castor-oil plant. The people who are thus suspected are so cruelly beaten that in the majority of cases they die under the infliction.”
A milder form of treatment is to make the witch drink the filthy water of a washerman’s tank, which is believed to destroy her skill.[61] The punishment in vogue in Central India was to make witches drink the water used by curriers, leather being, as we have seen, a scarer of evil spirits, and drinking such water involves degradation from caste. In more serious cases the witch’s nose was cut off, or she was put to death.[62]
In Bastar, if a man is adjudged guilty of witchcraft, he is beaten by the crowd, his hair is shaved, the hair being supposed to constitute his power of mischief, his front teeth are knocked out, in order, it is said, to prevent him from muttering incantations, or more probably, as we have already seen, to prevent him from becoming a Loupgarou. All descriptions of filth are thrown at him; if he be of good caste, hog’s flesh is thrust into his mouth, and lastly he is driven out of the country, followed by the abuse and execrations of his enlightened fellow-men. Women suspected of sorcery have to undergo the same ordeal; if found guilty, the same punishment is awarded, and after being shaved, their hair is attached to a tree in some public place. In Chhattîsgarh, a witch has her hair shaved with a blunt knife, her two front teeth are knocked out, she is branded in the hinder parts, has a ploughshare, which is a strong fetish, tied to her legs, and she is made to drink the water of a tannery.[63]