They are accused, like the "Mula Curumbers," of demanding quantities of
grain or loans of money, &c., from people, and when these demands are
refused, they go away with a remark to the effect, "that you have lots
of cattle and grain just now, but we'll see what they are like after a
month or two." Then probably the cattle of the bewitched person will
get some disease, and several of them die, or some person of his family
will become ill or get hurt in some unaccountable way. Till at last,
thoroughly frightened, the afflicted person takes a little uncooked rice
and goes to a deona or mati (as he is called in the different
vernaculars of the province)--the grade immediately above najo in
knowledge--and promising him a reward if he will assist him, requests
his aid; if the deona accedes to the request, the proceedings are as
follows. The deona taking the oil brought, lights a small lamp and
seats himself beside it with the rice in a surpa (winnower) in his
hands. After looking intently at the lamp flame for a few minutes, he
begins to sing a sort of chant of invocation in which all the spirits
are named, and at the name of each spirit a few grains of rice are
thrown into the lamp.
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