“vilanies,” amongst the rest that “she learned this arte of witchcraft at the age of xii yeres of hyr grandmother whose nam mother Eue of Hatfyelde Peuerell, disseased. Itm when shee taughte it her, she counselled her in the lykenesse of a whyte spotted Catte.” In 1582, during the celebrated St. Osyth prosecutions Ales Hunt confessed that she entertained two familiars, and “saith, that her sister (named Margerie Sammon) hath also two spirites like Toads, the one called Tom, and the other Roddyn: And saith further, her sayde Syster and shee had the sayd spyrites of their Mother, Mother Barnes.” That a familiar should have been handed down in this manner seems to have been a well-known custom among the Lapps, for in his notes upon the De Prodigiis of Julius Obsequens,[48] J. Scheffer[49] quoting Tornaeus says: “the Laplanders bequeath their Demons as part of their inheritence, which is the reason that one family excells another in this magical art.”
With regard to the Bajang, Sir Frank Swettenham further gives the following account: “Some one in the village falls ill of a complaint the symptoms of which are unusual; there may be convulsions, unconsciousness, or delirium, possibly for some days together or with intervals between the attacks. The relatives will call in a native doctor, and at her (she is usually an ancient female) suggestion, or without it, an impression will arise that the patient is the victim of a bajang. Such an impression quickly develops into certainty, and any trifle will suggest the owner of the evil spirit. One method of verifying this suspicion is to wait till the patient is in a state of delirium, and then to question him or her as to who is the author of the trouble. This should be done by some independent person of authority, who is supposed to be able to ascertain the truth.
“A further and convincing proof is then to call in a ‘Pawang’ skilled in dealing with wizards (in Malay countries they are usually men), and if he knows his business his power is such that he will place the sorcerer in one room, and, while he in another scrapes an iron vessel with a razor, the culprit’s hair will fall off as though the razor had been applied to his head instead of to the vessel! That is supposing that he is the culprit; if not, of course he will pass through the ordeal without damage.
