England. Men and women seriously believed in witchcraft and intercourse with the devil. What they saw in India did not tend to lessen that faith. It is not surprising to read that when Matthias Vincent, one of the Company's servants, was accused (1679) by an Englishman named Thomas of having 'practised Diabolicall arts with the Bramines and others for bewitching him/ the Court of Directors gave ear to the tale. They not only listened but took action, directing the authorities in Bengal to prevent him from 'exercising charms or useing poyson, by securing him a safe custody from conversing with any of the said witches or other natives.'
Thomas afterwards went out of his mind and attempted to murder his wife. In those days this fact not only served to show that the man was a lunatic, but that he was suffering under a ban or spell cast upon him by another. Vincent succeeded in clearing himself of the charge of witchcraft after he reached England, and he received the honour of knighthood within two years of his departure from India.
There is something very pathetic in the deep-rooted faith in demons exhibited by the natives of the South of India. A man may embrace Christianity, declare his faith and allegiance to the God of his new religion, and live an exemplary Christian life, yet his demon creed clings closely. The devils are still living and real personalities, and he trembles before their power; but he no longer worships and propitiates—that is left for his heathen relatives to do. Though he does not worship nor propitiate them, he believes in the power of casting them out through the example of Jesus Christ. A native clergyman once described to me in good faith and all seriousness how he had successfully cast the devil out of a young girl. He was born a Christian, and was the son of a native clergyman.
