Some Examples of Sorcery Practices

Detailed descriptions of the phenomena of sorcery were gathered from the practitioner or the enchanter, and also from the affected persons or witnesses i.e., Sabar villagers who happened to be the prime witnesses of the phenomenon (Raychaudhury 2004).

5.3.1 Birth Ritual

At the seventh month of pregnancy, members of the pregnant woman’s in-law family arrange a ritual named law-manshi.⁶ In this ritual, the family members offer some good food items like chicken, sweets, and a kind of fried sweet locally called pithe to the pregnant women. Along with this, an ojha-maduli⁷ (amulet) specially prepared by the sorcerer is given to the woman for wearing on her left hand. The villagers believe that the amulet will protect both the pregnant woman and the child from all evil spirits. This ritual is followed by each and every villager. The ritual creates a perpetual bond between the sorcerer and the villagers.

5.3.2 Death Ritual

The villagers burn the dead body of a person. The Sabar people are extremely poor and can­not afford to cremate their deceased ones. Instead they bury the dead in their own premises. After completing the entire process of burial, khoi (milky white parched rice) is spread all over the burial ground. The first person of the group returning from the burial place has to put a kodarbant (wooden handle of the axe) and saalpata (leaf of Shorea robusta) on the soil in front of their living rooms. At this stage, a sorcerer enchants some magical spells and all of the family members of the deceased person have to touch two objects placed on bare soil in front of their living rooms so that they can remain safe from the spirit of the deceased.

5.3.3 Destruction of Agricultural Fields

Mathan Sabar, 56 years old, said that the sorcerer destroys their crops if any villager refuses to give him food or denies to fulfil his desires. In fact, each and every villager is scared of him and is under constant threat of being the victim of his magical spell. Villagers shared their stories of suffering for his magical practices. These Sabar people occasionally cultivate potato (aar), maize (butto, the Sabar use this word for maize), and tomato (bilati). Once a sorcerer appeared at the doorstep of a villager and demanded three ducks for his personal use. When denied, the sorcerer got angry. As a result, the person received an open threat that his life would be ruined within a week. The 1,656 sq. ft. tomato garden (bilati bhur) of the villager dried within three days. His family confronted starvation due to this huge financial loss. After this incident, the villagers try their best to fulfil the demands of the sorcerer. The misery delineated above was faced by 38 year old Gurupada Sabar.

5.3.4 Death of a Child

The story of Golapi Sabar is really heart touching. The 29 year old mother stated that sometime back, her five-month-old baby was suffering from high fever and was vomiting profusely. Her husband and mother-in-law had both decided to call upon the sorcerer. The sorcerer entered the house with a small stick in his hand, and stared at her baby’s face for some five to seven minutes. There upon, he started to scratch the soil where he was standing and started whispering his magical spells. The sorcerer then collected some scratched out soil and started rubbing the same over the entire body of the baby. Within an hour the baby died. The death of the baby left a deep scar on the mind of the mother and immediately thereafter she had severe convulsion, fever, and hematemesis. Fortune (1932) also mentioned in the case of Dobuan people that “the sorcerer causes sickness and death by using spells”. The villagers solely believed that the sorcerer was responsible for the death.

5.3.5 Stopping Cow's Milk

Muthun Sabar (a milk seller) misbehaved with the sorcerer. The sorcerer threatened him, saying that he would stop his cow’s milk with his enchantment. Surprisingly, his cow’s milk stopped. There after Muthun apologised to that sorcerer and pleased him with fruits, vegetables, and milk. He also added that after admitting his mistake to the sorcerer, he was having his cow’s milk like earlier. After the incident Muthun Sabar used to give milk to that sorcerer every Sunday.

5.3.6 Setting Fire to a House

On a chilly winter evening the villagers heard shouting from outside Dipsa Sabar’s house. Dipsa’s house was on fire. The villagers rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish the fire. On the very next morning, that old sorcerer appeared before the burnt-out house of Dipsa and shouted at the top of his voice, “don’t dare to disturb me again”. Later the villagers said that Dipsa had earlier told the sorcerer to stop doing any of those magical spells on his agricul­tural field and it was out of vengeance that the sorcerer set fire to the straw on the roof of his hut with the help of magical spells. The villagers got scared and did not disturb him again.

Apart from the above mentioned mischievous activities, sorcery also has a long history of positive performances like healing, remedial agents in several spheres as observed in South India (Nabokov 2000) and Assam (Barua 2013). The villagers also have experiences of some happy and peaceful moments through his benevolent acts.

5.3.7 Relief from Menstrual Pain

Madhu Sabar, a 17 year old girl, enthusiastically shared her experience. She was suffering from catamenial menstrualphase for 13 days in a month. The health centre being far away from the village, the villagers usually avoid visiting the health centre unless there is a serious problem. Madhu Sabar, without visiting the health centre, visited the sorcerer along with her mother.

5.3.8 Hunting

Mitu Sabar, 27 years old, and his group consisting of six people visited the sorcerer before starting their journey to a forest for the purpose of hunting. The group asked for his bless­ings for the success of their hunting. The sorcerer collected some water from the nearby Kanshabati River (Kansaijoor) and poured that water into an earthen vessel. He manoeu­vred some mysterious magical spells on the water in the earthen vessel and sprinkled the same prepared water on their spearhead which they would use as a hunting weapon. The group successfully hunted two wild boars and five rabbits. For this he demanded only a small share of that hunted meat.

5.4