Note 120 — THE STORY OF THE THREE SHARPERS.[17] (continued 2)
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
So in the Apocrypha (“Tobias” vi. 8). Tobit is taught by the Archangel Raphael to drive away evil spirits (or devils) by the smoke of a bit of fish’s heart. The practice may date from the earliest days when “Evil Spirits” were created by man. In India, when Europeans deride the existence of Jinns and Rakshasas, and declare that they never saw one, the people receive this information with a smile which means only, “I should think not! you and yours are worse than any of our devils.”