pot; then she and the young woman who is initiating
her, eat the feast together; a woman who has once eaten such a stew
is completely proficient and can never forget what she has learnt.

This is the way in which girls learn witchcraft; and if any girl
refuses to take the final step and will not eat men she is caused to
go mad or die. Those however who have once eaten men have a craving
for it.

Generally it is only women who are witches; but there are men who have
learnt witchcraft and there are others who without being initiated
have kept company with witches. For instance in Simra village there
is Chortha who was once a servant of the Parganna. He says that the
Parganna's wife used to take him out with her at night. The women used
to sacrifice fowls and goats and make him skin them and cut them up:
he had then to roast cakes of the flesh and give them to the Parganna's
wife who distributed them among the other women.

Sometimes also witches take a man with them to their meetings to beat
the drum: and sometimes if a man is very much in love with a girl he
is allowed to go with them and is taught witchcraft. For instance
there was a man who had a family of daughters and no son and so he
engaged a man servant by the year to work for him.

After being some years in service this man servant one night was for
some reason unusually late in letting the buffaloes out to graze,
and while doing so he saw all the women of the household assembled
out of doors; they came up to him and told him not to be afraid
and promised to do him no harm provided he told no one what he had
seen. Two or three days later the young women of the house invited
him to go to a witches' meeting. He went but felt rather frightened
the whole time; however nothing happened to him, so he got over his
fear and after that he used to go with them quite willingly and learnt
all about witchcraft. At last they told him that he must _sid atang_
by "eating" a human being. He objected that he was an orphan and so
there was no relation whom he could eat. This was a difficulty that
seemed insurmountable; and he suggested that he should be excused the
full course and taught only a little such as how to "eat" fowls. The
women agreed but it was arranged that to deceive people he should go
for two or three days and study with a _jan guru_ and be initiated by
him. Thus it would be thought that he learnt his magic from the _guru_
but really he learnt it from the witch