In Bastar, “a fisherman’s net is wound round the head of the suspected witch to prevent her escaping or bewitching her guards. Two leaves of the Pîpal or sacred fig tree, one representing her and the other her accusers, are thrown upon her outstretched hands. If the leaf in her name fall uppermost, she is supposed to be a suspicious character; if the leaf fall with the lower part upwards, it is possible that she may be innocent, and popular opinion is in her favour.” The final test is the usual water ordeal.[38]
Miscellaneous Tests: Eggs.
Several persons, natives of the Khasiya Hills, were convicted of beating to death a man whom they believed to be a wizard. They confessed freely, saying that he destroyed their wives and daughters by witchcraft. One of the accused was the brother of the wife of the deceased. It appears that they discovered he was a sorcerer by the appearance of an egg when broken.[39] A similar case is reported among the Banjâras of Berâr.[40] The use of eggs in this way opens up an interesting chapter in folk-lore. Thus, we have the famous legend which tells how a golden egg was produced at the beginning of all things, and from it Prajapati Brahma, the great progenitor of the universe, was produced. This piece of primitive folk-lore appears in the folk-tales in the numerous stories of children produced from eggs.[41] In one of the Kashmîr tales the egg of the wondrous bird has the power of transmuting anything it touches into gold.[42] Again, we have everywhere instances of the belief in the power of eggs as guardians against evil spirits. “An egg laid on Ascension Day hung to the roof of the house preserveth the same from all hurts.”[43] Children in Northumberland, when first sent abroad in the arms of the nurse, are presented with an egg, salt, and fine bread. In India, we constantly see the eggs of the ostrich hung up in mosques and tombs to repel evil influences. We have the same idea in the use of eggs at Easter in England. In the Konkan, Kunbis give a mixture of eggs and turmeric to a man who spits blood; and to remove the effects of the Evil Eye, they wave bread and an egg round a sick person. The Sultânkârs, when their wives are possessed with evil spirits, offer rice, a fowl, and an egg, and the spirit passes away. The Beni Israels, to avert evil, break a hen’s egg under the forefoot of the bridegroom’s horse.[44]
There is another form of witch test in Chhatîsgarh, where a pole of a particular wood is erected on the banks of a stream, and each suspected person, after bathing, is required to touch the pole; it is supposed that if any witch does this her hand will swell.
The Rowan Tree.
According to British folk-lore, one of the most potent antidotes for witches is a twig of the rowan tree bound with scarlet thread, or a stalk of clover with four leaves laid in the byre, or a bough of the whitty, or “wayfaring tree.”[45] Many, in fact, are the herbs which are potent in this way, of which the chief is perhaps that Moly, “that Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.” In India, the substitute for these magic trees is a branch of the tamarind, or a stalk of the castor-oil tree (Palma Christi). If, after receiving in silence an ordinary scourging by the usual methods, the suspected person cries out at a blow with the magic branch, he is certainly guilty.[46] These plants are everywhere supposed to exercise power over witches, and even in places like the North-Western Provinces, where witch-hunting is happily a thing of the past, a Chamâr or currier, a class which enjoy an uncanny reputation, is exceedingly afraid of even a slight blow with a castor-oil switch.