Thus, the ordeal of walking over hot coals and on heated ploughshares was a common method of testing a witch both in India and in Europe.[31] Zâlim Sinh, however, generally used the water ordeal, a test which is known all over the world.[32] Even Pliny knew that Indian witches could not sink in water.[33] Manu prescribes water as a form of oath, and to this day it is a common form of oath ordeal for a man to stand in water when he is challenged to swear. Zâlim Sinh used to say that handling balls of hot iron was too slight a punishment for such sinners as witches, for it was well known that they possessed substances which enabled them to do this with impunity; so he used to throw them into a pool of water; if they sank, they were innocent; if they, unhappily, came to the surface, their league with the powers of darkness was apparent. A bag of cayenne pepper tied over the head, if it failed to suffocate, afforded another test.
“The most humane method employed was rubbing the eyes with a well-dried capsicum; and certainly if they could furnish the demonstration of their innocence by withholding tears, they might justly be deemed witches.”[34] Akin to these tests is the folk-tale ordeal by which the calumniated heroine bathes in boiling oil to prove her chastity.[35]
Santâl Witch Ordeals.
Forbes gives the tests in vogue in his day among the Santâls, whom he calls Soontaar. Branches of the Sâl tree (Shorea robusta) marked with the names of all the females of the village, whether married or unmarried, who had attained the age of twelve years, were planted in the morning in water for the space of four and a half hours; and the withering of any of these branches was proof of witchcraft against the person whose name was attached to it. Small portions of rice enveloped in pieces of cloth marked as before, were placed in a nest of white ants; the consumption of the rice in any of the bags was proof of witchcraft against the woman whose name it bore. Lamps were lighted at night; water was placed in cups made of leaves, and mustard oil was poured drop by drop into the water, while the name of each woman in the village was pronounced. The appearance of the shadow of any woman in the water during the ceremony proved her to be a witch.[36]
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]