I was told by two men that they believed that a sorcerer, by merely thinking of the effect he wished to produce, could produce the effect, and that it was not necessary for him to use any magical formula or practise any special rites. [[256]]
It was not until my last week on the Nilgiris that I was told of some of the magical rites by Teitnir, who had previously denied all knowledge, though he was said by others to be a sorcerer, and he knew that I was aware of his reputation. He was not a trustworthy informant, but his account was consistent in itself and was in agreement with fragments which I had picked up elsewhere, and I believe it is correct, though I cannot guarantee its accuracy with the same degree of confidence which I feel in regard to most of my information.
The following men were said by various people to be pilikòren:—
Kaners, Kudrievan, and Teikudr (63), Ishkievan (60), Keinkursi (54), Puthion (64), and Teitnir (52), among the Teivaliol; Keitan (6), Mudrigeidi (1), Kiunervan and Usheidi (14), and Karseidi (8), among the Tartharol. Pushteidi, the elder brother of Keitan, was a noted sorcerer who paid for the belief in his magical powers with his life. It will be noted that magical powers appear to be fairly evenly distributed between the two divisions and do not greatly predominate in one as in the case of divination.
The power of sorcery was said to belong to certain families, and I was told that it was inherited. It seemed probable that a sorcerer only communicated his methods to his sons, and usually only to one of his sons, or if he communicated his knowledge to all, it was often one of them only who obtained the credit for magical powers.
We have already seen that when a man sustains a misfortune of any kind, he consults the diviners, and they find whether the misfortune is due to a fault committed by the sufferer or whether it is the result of sorcery. In the latter case, they say by whose magic the misfortune has been produced, and the sorcerer is then propitiated and removes the spell, the nature and details of the process varying according to the method of sorcery used and the offence which had led the sorcerer to exert his powers. Thus when Pirsners (9) fell ill, he consulted Midjkudr, who said that Kudrievan had bewitched him. Pirsners went to Kudrievan and gave him food, and asked him to remove the spell, and Pirsners became well soon after. [[257]]
There are two chief reasons which induce a sorcerer to work his magic on another. One is when a request by the sorcerer for assistance has been met by deception. If the sorcerer asks a rich man for a buffalo, or for money, and the rich man refuses point-blank, it does not appear that the sorcerer proceeds farther; but if the rich man promises a gift and does not give it, or if he delays giving a positive answer and puts off a decision from day to day, it is a clear case for the application of occult measures. The other chief motive for sorcery is a quarrel with a sorcerer. The methods are different in the two cases. In the first case the sorcerer procures some human hair—it may be the hair of any one, even his own hair. It is not the hair of the man he wishes to injure because it would be impossible to get it. Five small stones are taken and tied together by means of the hair, and both hair and stones are tied up in a piece of cloth. Then, holding the stones and hair in his hand, the sorcerer utters the following incantation:—
Pithioteu Ön idith, Teikirzim Tirshtim idith; â those teu gods sati power udâsnûdr; if there be; an his nòdr country nòdr country udâsnûdr; if there be; an kar warkhi his calf sleep peu mâ; go may; an îr his buffaloes têrgi pûti wings grow pâr mâ; fly may; ath on nîr he I water ud puk âthm drink as he also nîr un mâ; water drink may; on nîkh I thirsty as puk am as âthm he also nîkhai mâ; thirsty be may; on eirt I hungry puk as âthm he also eirth hunger mâ; may; en my mokhm children ödrth cry puk as an his mokhm children ödr cry mâ; may; en my tazmokh wife kûtm ragged cloth pût wear puk as an his tazmokhm wife kûtm ragged cloth pûv wear mâ. may.
This incantation was freely rendered by Teitnir as follows: For the sake of Pithioteu, Ön, Teikirzi, and Tirshti; by the power of the gods if there be power; by the gods’ country if there be a country;[3] may his calves perish; as birds fly away may his buffaloes go when the calves come to suck; as I drink water, may he have nothing but water to drink; as I am thirsty, may he also be [[258]]thirsty; as I am hungry, may he also be hungry; as my children cry, so may his children cry; as my wife wears only a ragged cloth, so may his wife wear only a ragged cloth.
When he has uttered the incantation, the sorcerer takes the hair and stones in their cloth to the village of the man upon whom he wishes these misfortunes to fall, and hides them secretly in the thatch of the roof of the man’s hut.