In Bastar, if a man is adjudged guilty of witchcraft, he is beaten by the crowd, his hair is shaved, the hair being supposed to constitute his power of mischief, his front teeth are knocked out, in order, it is said, to prevent him from muttering incantations, or more probably, as we have already seen, to prevent him from becoming a Loupgarou. All descriptions of filth are thrown at him; if he be of good caste, hog’s flesh is thrust into his mouth, and lastly he is driven out of the country, followed by the abuse and execrations of his enlightened fellow-men. Women suspected of sorcery have to undergo the same ordeal; if found guilty, the same punishment is awarded, and after being shaved, their hair is attached to a tree in some public place. In Chhattîsgarh, a witch has her hair shaved with a blunt knife, her two front teeth are knocked out, she is branded in the hinder parts, has a ploughshare, which is a strong fetish, tied to her legs, and she is made to drink the water of a tannery.[63]
Witchcraft Punishments among the Drâvidians.
In former times among the Drâvidian races persons denounced as witches were put to death in the belief that witches breed witches and sorcerers. A terrible raid was made on these unfortunate people when British authority was relaxed during the Mutiny, and most atrocious murders were committed. “Accusations of witchcraft are still sometimes made, and persons denounced are subjected to much ill-usage, if they escape with their lives.”[64] Among the Bhîls suspected persons used to be suspended from a tree head downwards, pounded chillies being first put into the witch’s eyes to see if the smarting would bring tears from her. Sometimes after suspension she was swung violently from side to side. She was finally compelled to drink the blood of a goat, slaughtered for the purpose, which is regarded as a substitute for the sick man’s life, and to satisfy the witch’s craving for blood. She was then brought to the patient’s bedside, and required to make passes over his head with a Nîm branch; a lock of hair was also cut from the head of the witch and buried in the ground, that the last link between her and her former powers of mischief might be broken.[65]
Other Witchcraft Punishments.
Dr. Chevers has collected a number of instances in which the punishment of death or mutilation was inflicted on supposed witches. He quotes a case in 1802, in which several of the witnesses declared that they remembered numerous instances of persons being put to death for sorcery; one of them, in particular, proved that her mother had been tried and executed as a witch. In another case a Kol, thinking that some old women had bewitched him, placed them in a line and cut off all their heads, except that of the last, who, objecting to this drastic form of ordeal, ran away and escaped. In another, the nose-ring of a suspected witch was torn out with such violence as to cause extensive laceration. There are recorded instances of even more brutal forms of mutilation. A case occurred at Dhâka in which some people went to the house of a supposed witch, intending, as they said, to make her discontinue her enchantments, and ill-treated her in such a shameful way as to leave her in a dying state. She appears to have been in the habit of prescribing medicine for children, and this seems to have been the only basis for the reports that she practised magic.[66]
Drawing Blood from a Witch.
One favourite way of counteracting the spells of a witch is to draw blood from her. Thus, Professor Rhys, writing of Manxland, says: “There is a belief that if you can draw blood, however little, from a witch or one who has the Evil Eye, he loses his power of harming you; and I have been told that formerly this belief was sometimes acted on. Thus, on leaving church, for instance, the man who fancied himself in danger from another would go up to him, or walk by his side, and inflict on him a slight scratch or some other trivial wound, which elicited blood.”[67] In the First Part of “Henry VI.” Talbot says to the Pucelle de Orleans,—