The Kolarian witch-finder’s test is to put a large wooden grain measure under a flat stone as a pivot on which the latter can revolve. A boy is then seated on the stone supporting himself with his hands, and “the names of all the people in the neighbourhood are slowly pronounced. As each name is uttered a few grains of rice are thrown at the boy. When they come to the name of the witch or wizard, the stone turns and the boy rolls off.”[47] This, no doubt, is the effect of the boy’s falling into a state of coma, and losing the power of supporting himself with his hands.
Marks of Witches.
Some witches are believed to learn the secrets of their craft by eating filth. We have already seen that this is also believed to be the case with evil spirits. Such a woman, in popular belief, is always very lovely and scrupulously neat in her personal appearance, and she always has a clear line of red lead applied to the parting of her hair. Witches have a special power of casting evil glances on children, and after a child is buried, they are believed to exhume the corpse, anoint it with oil, and bring it to life to serve some occult purpose of their own. On the same principle the Kâfirs believe that dead bodies are restored to life, and made hobgoblins to aid their owners in mischief.[48] Indian witches, moreover, are supposed to keep a light burning during the ceremony of child exhumation, and if the father or the mother has the courage to run and snatch away the child just as it is revived, and before the witch can blow out the light, the child will be restored to them safe and sound.[49]
Charms Recited Backward.
One well-known characteristic of witches is that she cannot die as long as she is a witch, but must while alive pass on her craft to another, is well recognized in India. Hence a witch is always on the look-out for some one to whom she may delegate her functions, and many well-meaning people have been ruined in this way through misplaced confidence in the benevolence of a witch.[50]
Indian witches also resemble their European sisters in their habit of reciting their charms backward,—
He who’d read her aright must say her
Backwards like a witch’s prayer.