t concourse of people at a
fair held at the town of Raipur,[10] and, while sauntering with many
other strangers in the fair, one of them began bargaining with two
women of middle age for some very fine sugar-canes. They asked double
the fair price for their canes. The man got angry, and took up one of
them, when the women seized the other end, and a struggle ensued. The
purchaser offered a fair price, seller demanded double. The crowd
looked on, and a good deal of abuse of the female relations on both
sides took place. At last a sepoy of the governor came up, armed to
the teeth, and called out to the man, in a very imperious tone, to
let go his hold of the cane. He refused, saying that 'when people
came to the fair to sell, they should be made to sell at reasonable
prices, or be turned out'. 'I', said Jangbar Khan, 'thought the man
right, and told the sepoy that, if he took the part of this woman, we
should take that of the other, and see fair play. Without further
ceremony the functionary drew his sword, and cut the cane in two in
the middle; and, pointing to both pieces, 'There', said he, 'you see
the cause of my interference'. We looked down, and actually saw blood
running from both pieces, and forming a little pool on the ground.
The fact was that the woman was a sorceress of the very worst kind,
and was actually drawing the blood from the man through the cane, to
feed the abominable devil from whom she derived her detestable
powers. But for the timely interference of the sepoy he would have
been dead in another minute; for he no sooner saw the real state of
the case than he fainted. He had hardly any blood left in him, and I
was afterwards told that he was not able to walk for ten days. We all
went to the governor to demand justice, declaring that, unless the
women were made an example of at once, the fair would be deserted,
for no stranger's life would be safe. He consented, and they were
both sewn up in sacks and thrown into the river; but they had
conjured the water and would not sink. They ought to have been put to
death, but the governor was himself afraid of this kind of people,
and let them off. There is not', continued Jangbar, 'a village, or a
single family, without its witch in that part of the country; indeed,
no man will give his daughter in marriage to a family without one,
saying, "If my daughter has children, what will become of them
without a witch to protect them from the witches of other families i