Shamanism in Bangladesh

Abstract

When I was young I visited my village along with other members of our family. A relation of mine had a daughter, the first child. The daughter was then three years old and was beautiful and healthy, but she suddenly fell ill and died within two days. It was discovered that some of her hair had been taken away, and there were marks of scratches on her chest. Everybody in the family believed that it was the work of a sorcerer, who caused the girl to die in order to bring a cure to a certain childless mother whose babies had all died shortly after birth. The family called a faquir, a mystic and native healer who was capable of detecting such a sorcerer's crime with the help of magical methods, such as the use of a magic glass known in Bengali as aina-bharon. The faquir explained that the sorcerer took away some of the hair and chest skin of the victim and put these into an amulet either on a Shanibar (Saturday) or Mongolbar (Tuesday) during the night of the new moon, or amavasya, and then colsed its mouth with wax from a bee's comb. The faquir further said that the victim in such a case must be a mother's first child, and that the death of the child would procure an off-spring for another childless mother. The off-spring who was thus procured would continue to live as usual. Thefaquir added that if the crime of the sorcerer was detected before any damage was done to the life of the victim, this was to be brought at once to the attention of everybody in the village. An announcement should be made that the sorcerer had taken away the hair or nail or chest skin of the victim. Then all the victim's hair should be cut, burnt, and buried at the meeting point of three roads. The victim would then be safe. During our stay in the village, we came

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