Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 685

BHOOTAM-WORSHIP
645
primary cause of all natural disturbances and troubles.
Such demons are also called pisachas, dehias, &c.
There are temples specially dedicated to the worship of
and there are some districts where this par-
evil spirits
Most
ticular form of idolatry holds almost exclusive sway.
of the inhabitants of the long range of hills which bounds
Mysore on the west acknowledge no other deity than the
devil.
Each family has its own bhootam, to which it offers
daily prayers and sacrifices in order that he may preserve
its members from the ills which the bhootams of their enemies
might bring upon them. Bhootam images are to be found
all over these hills.
Sometimes they are idols with hideous
faces, but more often they are merely shapeless blackened
Some
stones. Every bhootam has his own particular name.
are thought to be more powerful and more spiteful than
others, and these are naturally most widely worshipped.
;
Buf-
All these evil spirits delight in sacrifices of blood.
and other living animals are fre-
and when rice is offered to
quently slain in their honour
them it must be dyed with blood. They do not disdain to
accept offerings of intoxicating liquors and drugs, or even
flowers, provided they are red.
I have noticed that the worship of evil spirits is most
prevalent in mountainous regions and in sparsely populated
rural tracts.
The inhabitants of these out-of-the-way dis-
tricts have little communication with more civilized parts,
and are more ignorant, more cowardly, and consequently
more superstitious even than their more civilized fellow-
countrymen. All the troubles and misfortunes that happen
to them are put down to their bhootams, whose anger they
faloes, pigs, goats, cocks,
;
think they have somehow incurred
and it is for the pur-
pose of disarming this malevolence that they are so prodigal
in their worship of them.
The wild tribes scattered through the forests of Malabar,
on the Carnatic Hills, and elsewhere, where they are known
as Kadu-Kurumbars, Sholigars, Irulers, &c, worship no
other gods but these bhootams.
;
Human
Sacrifices.
In vain has the attempt been made, for the credit of
humanity, to throw doubt upon the many evidences of