1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Witchcraft among Primitive Peoples

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Witchcraft among Primitive Peoples

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Witchcraft among Primitive Peoples

Although magical powers are everywhere attributed to women, witchcraft as here defined is by no means universal; in Europe alone is the woman the almost exclusive repository of magical powers; in the Congo the muntu ndongo may be either a man or a woman, and in fact the sexes are said to be engaged in magical pursuits in approximately equal numbers; in Australia men are much more concerned with magic than women, but the latter have certain forms peculiar to themselves in the central area, and, as in medieval Europe, it is largely concerned with sexual matters. At the present day the European witch is almost invariably old, but this is not characteristic of the female magician of primitive peoples, or not to the same extent; it must be remembered that the modern idea of witchcraft is largely a learned product - the result of Scholastic and Inquisitorial ingenuity, mingled to a greater or less extent with genuine folk beliefs. In India, among the Agariyas of Bengal, the instruction in witchcraft is given by the old women; but the pupils are young girls. The Indian witch is believed to have a cat familiar; there, as in Europe, many tests are applied to witches; they may be thrown into water, or their identity discovered by various forms of divination; or they may be known by the fact that beating them with the Castor Oil plant makes them cry out. As a punishment the witch may be shaved, made to drink dirty water, or otherwise ill-used.