the possession-theory and the rite of exorcism belonging to it may be perfectly studied to this day. There the doctrine of sudden ailment or nervous disease being due to a blast or possession by a 'bhut,' or being, that is, a demon, is recognized as of old; there the old witch who has possessed a man and made him sick or deranged, will answer spiritually out of his body and say who she is and where she lives; there the frenzied demoniac may be seen raving, writhing, tearing, bursting his bonds, till, subdued by the exorcist, his fury subsides, he stares and sighs, falls helpless to the ground, and comes to himself; and there the deities caused by excitement, singing, and incense to enter into men's bodies, manifest their presence with the usual hysterical or epileptic symptoms, and speaking in their own divine name and personality, deliver oracles by the vocal organs of the inspired medium.[1]
In the Ancient Babylonian- Assyrian texts, the exorcism-formulas show the doctrine of disease-demons in full development, and similar opinions were current in ancient Greece and Rome, to whose languages indeed our own owes the technical terms of the subject, such as 'demoniac' and 'exorcist.' Homer's sick men racked with pain are tormented by a hateful demon ((
Greek characters)). 'Epilepsy' ((Greek characters)) was, as its name imports, the 'seizure' of the patient by a superhuman agent: the agent being more exactly denned in 'nympholepsy,' the state of being seized or possessed by a nymph, i.e., rapt or entranced ((Greek characters), lymphatus). The causation of mental derangement and delirious utterance by spiritual possession was an accepted tenet of Greek philosophy. To be insane was simply to have an evil spirit, as when Sokrates said of those who denied demonic or spiritual knowledge, that they
- ↑ Ward, 'Hindoos,' vol. i. p. 155, vol. ii. p. 183; Roberts, 'Oriental Illustrations of the Scriptures,' p. 529; Bastian, 'Psychologie,' pp. 164, 184-7. Sanskrit paiçâcha-graha=demon-seizure, possession. Ancient evidence in Pictet, 'Origines Indo-Europ.' part ii. ch. v.
&c. See also Bowring, 'Siam,' vol. i. p. 139; 'Journ. Ind. Archip.' vol. iv. p. 507, vol. vi. p. 614; Turpin, in Pinkerton, vol. ix. p. 761; Kempfer, 'Japan,' ibid. vol. vii. pp. 701, 730, &c.
