aid to use the saliva of the people whom they
intend to bewitch, and visitors carefully conceal their spittle to
give them no opportunity of working their evil. Like our witches and
sorcerers of old, they appear to be a very harmless people, and but
little mixed up with the quarrels of their neighbours.[479] The
Australians, according to Oldfield, ascribe spirit powers to those
residing north of themselves and hold them in great dread.[480]

In Asia the same idea prevails among the native races. Thus Colquhoun
says,

"it was amusing to find the dread in which the Lawas
[a hill tribe] are held by both Burmese and Siamese.
This is due to a fear of being bitten by them and
dying of the bite. They are called by their Burmese
neighbours the 'man-bears.' A singular custom obtains
amongst these people which may perhaps partly account
for this superstition. On a certain night in the year
the youths and maidens meet together for the purpose
of pairing. Unacceptable youths are said to be bitten
severely if they make advances to the ladies."[481]

The Semang pygmy people, afraid to approach the Malays even for
purposes of barter, "learnt to work upon the superstition of the
Malays by presenting them with medicines which they pretended to
derive from particular shrubs and trees in the woods."[482] That this
is a real superstition of the conquerors for the conquered is proved
from other sources to which I have referred elsewhere.[483]

In Africa it appears as a living force, and we are told that the
stories current in the country of the Ukerewe, "about the witchcraft
practised by the people of Ukara island, prove that those islanders
have been at pains to spread abroad a good repute for themselves; that
they are cunning, and aware that superstition is a weakness of human
nature have sought to thrive upon it."[484]

It appears in more definite form with the Hindus. The Kathkuri, or
Katodi, have a belief that they are descended from the monkeys and
bears which Adi Narayun in his tenth incarnation of Rama, took with
him for the destruction of Rawun, King of Lanka, and he promised his
allies that in the fourth age they should become human beings. They
practise incantation, and encourage the awe with which the Hindu
regards their imprecations, for a Hindu believes that a Katodi can
transform himself into a tiger.[485]

To this day the Aryans settled in Chota-Nagpore and