gan to cry and sobbed out that her mother had
taught her witchcraft and married her to a _bonga_; and it was for
fear of the _bonga_ that she did not like to be alone in the dark;
and because she had refused to "eat" anyone her mother intended to
"eat" her and so she had no hope of living to see the Sohrai. Three
days later the girl fell ill and died, and after her death her friend
told how she had foreseen it.

CLXXX. Witch Stories.

In the village of Mohulpahari there was a youth named Jerba. He was
servant to Bepin Teli of Tempa and often had to come home in the dark
after his day's work. One night he was coming back very late and,
before he saw where he was, suddenly came upon a crowd of witches
standing under a hollow mowah tree at the foot of the field that
the dhobie has taken. Just as he caught sight of them they seized
hold of him and flung him down and did something which he could not
remember--for he lost his senses when they threw him down. When he
came to himself he managed to struggle free and run off. The witches
pursued but failed to overtake him and he reached his home in a state
of terror. The witches however had not finished with him for two or
three days after they caused him to fall from a tree and break his
arm. Ojhas were called in but their medicines did him no good. The
arm mortified and maggots formed and in a few days Jerba himself told
them that he would not recover; he told them how the witches chased
him and that he had recognised them as women of his own village and
shortly afterwards he became speechless and died.

My own brother-in-law lived at Mubundi. One night he and several other
men were sitting up on the threshing-floor watching their rice. In
the middle of the night they saw lights shining and flickering in
the courtyard of my brother-in-law's house and he went to see what
was the matter. When he got near, the lights went into the house:
he went up quietly and as he looked in found the house full of women
who extinguished the light directly they saw him and rushed out of
the house. Then he asked my sister what the light was; but she could
only stammer out "What light? I saw no light," so he struck her a blow
and went back to the threshing-floor and told the others what he had
seen. That night he would not tell them the names of the women he had
seen; and before morning his right arm swelled and became very painful;
the swelling quickly increased and by noon he lost consci