They
manifest their displeasure by sending sickness and other calamities.
Hence in times of public misfortune, as when an epidemic is raging,
and all other remedies have failed, the whole population go forth
with the priest at their head to a place at some distance from the
village. Here at sunset they erect a couple of poles with a
cross-bar between them, to which they attach bags of rice, wooden
models of pivot-guns, gongs, bracelets, and so on. Then, when
everybody has taken his place at the poles and a death-like silence
reigns, the priest lifts up his voice and addresses the spirits in
their own language as follows: "Ho! ho! ho! ye evil spirits who
dwell in the trees, ye evil spirits who live in the grottoes, ye
evil spirits who lodge in the earth, we give you these pivot-guns,
these gongs, etc. Let the sickness cease and not so many people die
of it." Then everybody runs home as fast as their legs can carry
them.
In the island of Nias, when a man is seriously ill and other
remedies have been tried in vain, the sorcerer proceeds to exorcise
the devil who is causing the illness.
Pages:
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537