Witch Tests, Bilâspur.
One of the most noted witch-finders in the Bilâspur District of the Central Provinces had two most effectual means of checkmating the witches. “His first effort was to get the villagers to describe the marked eccentricities of the old women of the community, and when these had been detailed, his experience soon enabled him to seize on some ugly or unlucky idiosyncrasy, which indicated in unmistakable clearness the unhappy offender. If no conclusion could be arrived at in this way, he lighted an ordinary earthen lamp, and repeating consecutively the name of each woman in the village, he fixed on the witch or witches by the flicker of the wick when the name or names were mentioned. The discovery of the witch soon led to her being grossly maltreated, and, under the Native Government, almost invariably in her death. Since the introduction of the British rule these cases are becoming year to year rarer; but the belief itself remains strong and universal, and the same class of superstitions pervades every-day life.”[37]