same time they fear extremely. To the Malay the Jakun seems a supernatural being, skilled in divination, sorcery, and fascination, able to do evil or good according to his pleasure, whose blessing will be followed by the most fortunate success, and his curse by the most dreadful consequences; he can turn towards the house of an enemy, at whatever distance, and beat two sticks together till that enemy will fall sick and die; he is skilled in herbal physic; he has the power of charming the fiercest wild beasts. Thus it is that the Malays, though they despise the Jakuns, refrain, in many circumstances, from ill-treating them.[1] In India, in long-past ages, the dominant Aryans described the rude indigenes of the land by the epithets of 'possessed of magical powers,' 'changing their shape at will.'[2] To this day, Hindus settled in Chota-Nagpur and Singbhum firmly believe that the Mundas have powers of witchcraft, whereby they can transform themselves into tigers and other beasts of prey to devour their enemies, and can witch away the lives of man and beast; it is to the wildest and most savage of the tribe that such powers are generally ascribed.[3] In Southern India, again, we hear in past times of Hinduized Dravidians, the Sudras of Canara, living in fear of the demoniacal powers of the slave-caste below them.[4] In our own day, among Dravidian tribes of the Nilagiri district, the Todas and Badagas are in mortal dread of the Kurumbas, despised and wretched forest outcasts, but gifted, it is believed, with powers of destroying men and animals and property by witchcraft.[5] Northern Europe brings the like contrast sharply into view. The Finns and Lapps, whose low Tatar barbarism was characterized by sorcery such as flourishes still among their Siberian kins-
- ↑ 'Journ. Ind. Archip.' vol. i. p. 328; vol. ii. p. 273 ; see vol. iv. p. 425.
- ↑ Muir, 'Sanskrit Texts,' part ii. p. 435.
- ↑ Dalton, 'Kols,' in 'Tr. Eth. Soc.' vol. vi. p. 6; see p. 16.
- ↑ Jas. Gardner, 'Faiths of the World,' s.v. 'Exorcism.'
- ↑ Shortt, 'Tribes of Neilgherries,' in ' Tr. Eth. Soc.' vol. vii. pp. 247, 277; Sir W. Elliot in 'Trans. Congress of Prehistoric Archæology,' 1868, p. 253.
