It is said that the spirits of young children become bhuts and those of grown-up people bongas and those of pregnant women churins.

CLXXIII.  Hunting Custom.

Formerly when the men went to a hunt the mistress of the house would not bathe all the time they were away and when the hunters returned she met them at the front door and washed their feet and welcomed them home.  The wife of the dehri used to put a dish of water under her bed at night and if the water turned red like blood they believed that it was a sign that game had been killed.

CHAPTER VI

Part VI.

The belief in witchcraft is very real to the present day among the Santals.  All untimely deaths and illness which does not yield to treatment are attributed to the machinations of witches, and women are not unfrequently murdered in revenge for deaths which they are supposed to have caused, or to prevent the continuance of illness for which they are believed to be responsible.

The Santal writer in spite of his education is a firm believer in witchcraft, and details his own experiences.  He has justification for his belief, for as was the case in Mediaeval Europe, women sometimes plead guilty to having caused death by witchcraft when there appears to be no adequate motive for a confession, which must involve them in the severest penalties.

Mr. Bodding is aware that Santal women do actually hold meetings at night at which mantras and songs are repeated, and at which they may believe they acquire uncanny powers; the exercise of such powers may also on occasion be assisted by the knowledge of vegetable poisons.

The witch may either herself cause death by ‘eating,’ or eating the liver of, her victim, or may cause her familiar “bonga” to attack the unfortunate.  That witches eat the liver is an old idea in India mentioned by the Mughal historians.

The Jan guru is employed to detect who is the woman responsible for any particular misfortune.  His usual method is to gaze on a leaf smeared with oil, in which as in a crystal he can doubtless imagine that shapes present themselves.  The witch having been detected, she is liable to be beaten and maltreated until she withdraws her spells, and if this does not lead to the desired result she may be put to death.

CLXXIV.  Witchcraft.

The higher castes do not believe in witchcraft.  If a man is ill they give him medicines and if he dies in spite of the medicine they do nothing further.  But all the lower castes believe in witchcraft and know that it is a reality.  The Santal women learnt the craft first from Marang Burn by playing a trick on him when he meant to teach their husbands.  And now they take quite little girls out by night and teach them so that the craft may not die out.