We know of many cases to prove that witchcraft is a reality.  Pirthi who lives in Pankha’s house was once ill:  and it was an aunt of his who was “eating” him.  One night as he lay ill the witch came and bent over him to take out his liver:  but he woke up just in time and saw her and catching her by the hair he shouted for the people in the house.  They and the villagers came and took the woman into custody.  When the Pargana questioned her she confessed everything and was punished.

Another time a boy lay ill and senseless.  A cowherd who was driving cattle home at evening ran to the back of the house where the sick boy lay, after a cow which strayed there.  There he found a woman in a state of possession (rum) he told the villagers what he had seen and they caught the woman and gave her a severe beating:  whereupon the sick boy recovered.  But about two months afterwards the cowherd suddenly fell down dead:  and when they consulted a jan as to the reason he said that it was the witch who had been beaten who had done it.

CLXXV.  Of Dains and Ojhas.

Once upon a time Marang Buru decided that he would teach men witchcraft.  In those days there was a place at which men used to assemble to meet Marang Buru and hold council with him:  but they only heard his voice and never saw his face.  One day at the assembly when they had begun to tell Marang Buru of their troubles he fixed a day and told them to come to him on it, dressed all in their cleanest clothes and he would teach them witchcraft.

So the men all went home and told their wives to wash their clothes well against the fixed day, as they were going to Thakur to learn witchcraft.  The women of course all began to discuss this new plan among themselves and the more they talked of it the less they liked it; it seemed to them that if the men were to get this new strange power it would make them more inclined to despise and bully women than ever; so they made a plot to get the better of their husbands.  They arranged that each woman should brew some rice beer and offer it to her husband as he was starting to meet Marang Buru and beg him to drink some lest his return should be delayed.  They foresaw that the men would not be able to resist the drink; and that having started they would go on till they were dead drunk:  it would then be easy for the women to dress themselves like men and go off to Marang Buru and learn witchcraft in place of their husbands.  So said, so done;—­the women duly made their husbands drunk and then put on pagris and dhoties and stuck goats’ beards on their faces and went off to Marang Buru to learn witchcraft.  Marang Buru did not detect the imposition and according to his promise taught them all the incantations of witchcraft.