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A WEIRD CASE OF ORIENTAL SORCERY BY LINFORD CULLUM




(I don't know how the following history is true, but I found it interesting.)

I was sitting one afternoon in my office at the police-station, rather at a loose end (quite an unusual thing!) when a man asked to see me. He turned out to be a Singhalese clerk, a Christian, employed on the railway, and he spoke English very well. He apologized for interrupting me, saying that his story was rather a long one.

When I told him to go ahead, he began by informing me that when he left Ceylon after his father’s death, his brother (who was still in that island) had threatened to be revenged upon him; for they had quarreled over the inheritance. The man seemed a decent sort of chap, and extremely disturbed in his mind.

I asked him what his trouble was, and he went on to tell me that a few days previously, as he sat reading in the evening beside his little shrine, a great stone had fallen from the ceiling — “where there are no stones,” he added with a look of terror — and had narrowly escaped hitting him. Since then things had begun to get lively in his bungalow.

Knives had flown at him, and one night, to his extreme terror, the kettle had floated in from the kitchen, where it had been singing on the stove, and had emptied boiling water at his feet. On another occasion he had been severely beaten with sticks wielded by invisible hands.

-      Look here, my dear fellow!” I exclaimed, with an incredulous smile, “Have you been drinking?

-      No, indeed, sir,” he assured me earnestly, and his manner carried conviction.

I asked him who lived with him in his bungalow, and he told me he was unmarried and employed only one man-servant, who slept on the premises. I asked him if he had any witnesses to the alleged occurrences, and he gave me quite a long list of credible folk.

When I further asked if there was any evidence of the beating, he showed me several bruises on his body, obviously caused by the blows of a stick.

-      Very well,” I said, “as you are plainly in earnest, I’ll call out my men and pay you a visit at once.”

I proceeded to give my orders, and in a short time, accompanied by another European officer, whom I will call Brown, and a posse of a dozen men, I went along with the terrified clerk.

We were led to an attap* bungalow standing in its own compound, on the border of the residential part of the city. There was nothing about the building to distinguish it from any other native habitation of the same class.

I caused my men to make a thorough search through the compound in order to see that no human being (or even a monkey!) could possibly be concealed there.

After we had assured ourselves that the coast was clear, I stationed my men around the bungalow, with strict injunctions to allow nobody to enter or to leave the building or the compound itself.

Then, taking with me Brown, the clerk, and the servant, I went into the house.

We now made a most thorough investigation of the premises, assuring ourselves, by entering and searching each room — there were only two bedrooms and a living-room divided by a passage, the kitchen being separate — by prodding the roof and bedding, and looking into every nook, corner and cupboard on the premises, that no possible agent for the alleged happenings could be anywhere concealed.

As we had previously locked both the front and the back doors and shuttered and barred the windows, we felt that we had done all that was humanly possible to eliminate chances of trickery.

I now ordered the clerk and the servant to come into the living-room, where I asked them to strip, Brown and I minutely examining each article of their clothing, their persons, their ears, mouths and nostrils, and even making them take down their hair.

Nothing!

After they had dressed again, Brown and I, keeping them in sight all the time, had one more good look round the hall passage and the room itself, taking careful note of all the objects lying about.

I then asked Brown whether he would be willing to abide by the decision of a toss as to who should remain alone with the natives.  Brown lost the toss, and having made certain that he was not feeling nervous at my withdrawal, I left him in the living-room with the two men, carefully closed the doors and windows of the room and of the front exit, and rejoined my men outside.

They reported that nothing had been seen or heard.

I now made another patrol of the compound, but had hardly concluded it when the front door burst open, and Brown rushed out, obviously perturbed.

-      Sir,” said he, “I wish you’d come indoors. Queer things are happening.  While we were sitting quietly in there a knife lying on a table some seven feet away from any of us suddenly rose, flew through the air in a curve, and fell at the feet of the native servant!

He pointed to the man who, with his master, had also rushed out of the house.

-      Nonsense, man,” I rejoined. “What have they been treating you to in there?

But Brown stuck to his story. Indeed, he seemed almost as much agitated as the natives. I must admit that, as I re-entered the bungalow, I was myself feeling a good deal impressed.

The four of us went back into the living-room, where we all sat down, the natives crouching on the floor in a corner, and Brown and I sitting on a box by the door

Feeling somewhat strung up and excited, I began to chaff Brown, but soon, finding him unresponsive, I too, sank into silence. So for a quarter of an hour we sat, waiting — and nothing happened!

At last the master of the house spoke:

-      Sir,” said he, “the spirit does not come. Perhaps if you were to curse__”

He made a gesture with his hand, smiling deprecatingly.

Somewhat against my instinct, I began to roll a few strong words upon my tongue, but hardly had I opened my lips when, following a kind of dark streak in the air, a glass stopper fell on to the box beside me!  It was a very ordinary glass stopper, and came from a vinegar bottle. But — I had seen just such a stopper on the table in the passage a short time before!

I leapt to my feet, threw open the door, and dashed into the passage.

The stopper had gone from the table.

I came back into the room mopping my brow, and sat down again upon the box beside Brown. Nobody uttered a word, and we all sat looking at each other.

Then a really nerve-racking thing occurred.

Through the door which I had left open behind me floated in a walking-stick, which glided across the room and came to rest lightly across my knees!

Whether any further phenomena would have happened I do not know. This was too much for us. With smothered exclamations both Brown and I sprang to our feet, while the two natives remained, as if frozen, in their comer.

I confess to being quite convinced of the reality of the occurrences, although I am not prepared to give an opinion as to the cause. Telling the clerk I would see what measures could be taken to protect him, I returned to the police-station as fast as possible.

One of my native sergeants, a Muslim, volunteered to see what he could do to exorcise the "evil thing."

He went, therefore, to the bungalow, where, having read several passages from the Koran, he copied them out and fixed them up on the front and back doors.

That night, the clerk subsequently informed me, he was left undisturbed, but the hauntings began again the next day, and when I came home on leave shortly afterwards the unfortunate tenant had been obliged to leave his bungalow, which now remains empty.

I may add that I observed round the house a seemingly endless piece of cotton, which I understand it is the practice of some Southern Indian and Singhalese magicians to put round a house upon which they intend to work their spells.

(* Note: an attap is a native thatch, generally made from the mipah palm)


(The Occult Review, April 1929, vol. 49, no. 3, p.246-249)




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