The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s8.9

v2.c32.s8.9

In one other respect the magician avails himself of the forms of the ordinary sacrifice. One of the most important ingredients in every magic offering is the Saṁpāta, the remnant of the butter offering made at the new and full moon, and the Kauçika Sūtra² contains precise instructions for the performance of these offerings, though it would be erroneous to imagine with Caland³ that every magic ceremony required to be accompanied by such a rite, a rule which would have restricted the workings of magic to a very short period.⁴ In the operations of his ceremonies the magician follows closely the ordinary rites of sacrifice: the person in whose interest he sacrifices takes stalks of Darbha grass and touches the priest with them to establish close contact with him, and smells the smoke of the oblations made in the fire by the priest.⁵ On the other hand, it is characteristic of the special nature of the rite that it is performed in the north-eastern quarter away from the village,⁶ and when it is completed the performers wash themselves in the stream near which the rite has been carried out, and return to the village, never turning round lest they may see the dread presences which they have evoked. The materials of the magic rite, apart from the frequent use of uneatable materials, are in the main the same as those of the ordinary ritual, but the diverse varieties of butter found in that ritual are replaced by the regular use of Ājya alone, while the Iṅgiḍa is often mentioned as an ingredient.⁷ Special interest attaches to the frequent use of earth from an ant-heap: as we have seen, the ant, doubtless owing to its skill and industry, was regarded as an uncanny animal by the Vedic Indian, and possibly experience may have proved the existence of some value in the earth. An interesting excursion into the realm of sacrifice is made by this belief: in the ceremony of the piling of the fire altar, when the clay for the making of the bricks has been collected, the priest is to gaze at it through an ant-heap, i.e. presumably through a tunnel made in such a heap. The explanation of this rite is obscure: Henry⁸ suggests comparison with the German superstition that by wearing a moleskin a man can see sorcerers: possibly the medium of an ant-heap conferred on the priests the faculty of discerning whether any evil influences were affecting his materials. Another curious ingredient is lead, and its three substitutes, iron filings, dried river foam, and a lizard's head.⁹ Woods of various kinds play a large part: one list¹⁰ enumerates twenty-two kinds of value, and is not exhaustive as it omits the Açvattha, which is often in fact employed in magic rites. But scarcely anything from an elephant’s tooth or hair¹ downwards comes amiss to the sorcerer, who in India as elsewhere is anxious to increase the importance of his action by asserting that his ingredients have been obtained from afar: an antidote against snakes is dug up on the ridges of the mountain with shovels of gold by the little Kirāta maiden,² an assertion with which we may, if we will, compare the practice not rarely recorded, under which people of higher culture ascribe to those of lower culture possession of superior magic powers.³