if she wants to "eat" a man she orders her
_bonga_ husband to kill him and if he refuses she heaps abuse on him
until he does.

CLXXIX. Witch Stories.

Young girls are taught witchcraft against their wills and if they
refuse to "eat" their father or brother they die or go mad. There
was a girl in my own village and she went out gathering herbs with
another girl who was a witch. As usual they sang at their work and the
witch girl sang songs the tune of which the other thought so pretty
that she learnt them by heart. When she had learnt them the witch
girl told her that they were witch songs and explained to her their
meaning. The girl was very angry at having been taught them unawares
but the witch girl assured her that she would never be able to forget
the songs or their interpretation; then she assigned her to a _bonga_
bridegroom and then told her to _sid atang_ and all would be well
with her otherwise she would have trouble.

When the girl learnt that she must _sid atang_ by "eating" her father
or brother or mother she began to make excuses; she could not kill
her father for he was the support of the family; nor her only brother
for he was wanted too at the _Baha_ and _Sohrai_ nor her mother who
had reared her in childhood. The witch girl said that if she refused
she would die; and she said that she would rather die than do what
was required of her. Then the witch did something and the girl began
to rave and talk gibberish and from that time was quite out of her
senses. _Ojhas_ tried to cure her in vain until at last one suggested
that she should be taken to another village as the madness must be
the work of witches living in her own village. So they took her away
and the remedies then cured her. She stayed in her new home and was
married there. A long time afterwards she went back to pay a visit to
her father's house: but the day after she arrived her head began to
ache and she fell ill and though her husband came and took her away
she died the day after she reached her home.

There was another girl; her friends noticed that when she came home
with them in the evening after planting rice she was very careful
not to fall behind or be left alone and they used to laugh at her for
being a coward. But one day she was gathering Indian corn with a friend
and as they talked she said "You will all have lovely dancing at the
Sohrai." "You!" said her friend: "won't you be there? Are you going
away?" Then the girl be