Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.1

v2.c14.4.1

Superstition of this kind is well-known to be spread throughout the world. Witches steal small children, and eat them or use them for their magical purposes; all kinds of spirits do harm to the mother, carry off the small beings, and put their changelings in their stead, suck children’s blood, and so on. Garnett, *The Women of Turkey*, etc., i, 13, 70, 231, 315; ii, 22, 245 (and on this *Zschr. f. Ethnol.*, Bd. 26, p. 560); Żmigrodski, *Die Mutter bei d. Völkern d. arisch. Stammes*, 124 ff.; Hartland, *The Science of Fairy Tales*, New York, 1891, pp. 93-134; Fr. S. Krauss, *Slav. Volkforsch.*, 60, 64, 66, 67, 68, 72, 146, 148, 153 ff.; etc. As probably most primitive peoples believe that a man can make only one child, and that with twins there must be either an uninvited fellow-worker or a supernatural being at work, so in one of the twins there is often seen a supernatural visitor from magical realms. But as it is not known which is a man's own child, both of them are often reared. But in other places, indeed, both are forthwith killed, or there is means to find out which is the intruder, exactly like the real changeling in European tales. There is a great number of these tales of changelings. As an example let only Kirchhof's *Wendunmuth*, iii, 516 f. be given.