In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 345, in a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant, a shepherd discriminates a demon from a man whose form he has taken,—living with his wife during the man’s absence,—by boring through a reed, and saying that the true person must be the one who could pass through it. As the demon was passing through it he stopped both ends of the reed with mud, and killed him.
In the South Indian Tales of Mariyada Rāman (P. Ramachandra Rao), p. 43, a husband was returning home on an unlucky day (the ninth of the lunar fortnight), with his wife, who had been visiting her parents. When he left her on the path for a few moments, “Navami Purusha,” the deity who presided over the ninth day, made his appearance in the form of the husband and went away with the wife. The husband followed, and took the matter before Mariyada Rāman. The judge got a very narrow-necked jug prepared, and declared that he would give her to the claimant who could enter and leave the jug without damaging it or himself. When the deity did it the judge made obeisance to him, and was informed that the man’s form had been taken by him to punish him for travelling on an unlucky day against the Purōhita’s advice.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 182, when a Brāhmaṇa returned home after some years’ absence he was turned away by a person of his own appearance, and the King could not decide the matter. A boy elected as King by others in their play offered to settle it, and producing a narrow-mouthed phial stated that the one who entered it should have judgment in his favour. When the ghost transformed himself into “a small creature like an insect” and crept inside, the boy corked it up and ordered the Brāhmaṇa to throw it into the sea and repossess his home. The first part resembles a story in the Kathākoça (Tawney), p. 41, the interloper being a deity in it.
In the well-known tale in the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. i, p. 33), the receptacle in which the Jinni was imprisoned was “a cucumber-shaped jar of yellow copper” or brass, closed by a leaden cap stamped with the seal-ring of Solomon. In vol. iii, p. 54, and vol. iv, p. 32, other Ifrits were enclosed in similar jars made of brass, sealed with lead.
[1] Māra, the God of Death, or Death personified. [↑]
[2] Compare the Kala spell in No. 245 of this vol., and the notes, p. 342, vol. ii. and p. 70 in this vol. [↑]
[3] Baeri taena, in a position of inability [to do anything]. [↑]
[4] Baḍa gālā, that is, by clasping his arms round it and rubbing his body on it, as he “swarmed” up it. [↑]