Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/23

Rh for it without propitiating this demon, for he will make the treasure shift its place, so that even if one digs where it is buried one will not find it.

In the case in question, the body of a Brahmin girl, aged six or seven years, was found in a well. The owner of the house adjoining the well was arrested, and confessed that a Bairâgi (or religious ascetic) living in the house had told him that treasure was buried in the house and could be found by means of a human sacrifice to propitiate the guardian demon.

He went on to confess that he, the Bairâgi, and two others had decoyed the girl into the house while she was on her way to school, by giving her some fruit, that she was then taken to the family worshipping-room, gagged and bound. The religious ascetic then repeated certain charms, and attempted to kill her with a sword; but the sword proving too blunt, the poor child was strangled. They at once dug for the treasure, but found none, on which the religious ascetic said that the demon must have removed the treasure, and that they must look for it again. The man who confessed said that they were on the look-out for another child.

When the ascetic was called on for his defence, he said: "It was not this body that did it." When questioned what he meant, he went off into incoherencies, and ended by denying that he had taken any part in the murder. Many of these people believe (or profess to believe) in the existence of something like astral bodies; but it is uncertain what this man meant, as he did not adhere to that line of defence.

The other case presents many details of interest. The victim in this case was a boy of twelve or thirteen. His body was found lying in an oleander garden on the banks of a river a little way from the village where he lived. A man was arrested trying to sell some of the deceased boy's ornaments. He confessed taking part in the murder with a number of others, and stated that the instigator of the