Note 2 — Chapter II · CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS

Mr Man’s account of the spirits of the jungle and sea contains an important error, which needs to be pointed out. He writes as though there were only one E̱rem Čauga (jungle spirit) and only one J̌uruwin (sea spirit), whereas each of these names is the name not of a single individual but of a class of supernatural beings of which there is an indefinite number. The following is Mr Man’s account:—E̱rem-čauga-la, the “evil spirit of the woods, has a numerous progeny by his wife Čana Badgi-lola, who remains at home with her daughters and younger children, while her husband and grown up sons roam about the jungles with a lighted torch attached to their left legs, in order that the former may injure any unhappy wights who may meet them unprotected, and in the dark; he generally makes his victims ill, or kills them by wounding them internally with invisible arrows, and if he is successful in causing death, it is supposed that they feast upon the raw flesh.” “As regards J̌uruwin, the evil spirit of the sea, they say that he too is invisible, and lives in the sea with his wife and children, who help him to devour the bodies of those who are drowned or buried at sea; fish constitute the staple of his food, but he also occasionally, by way of variety, attacks the aborigines he finds fishing on the shores or by the creeks. The weapon he uses is a spear, and persons who are seized with cramp or any sudden illness, on returning from, or while on the water are said to have been ‘speared’ by J̌uruwin. He has various submarine residences, and boats for travelling under the surface of the sea, while he carries with him a net, in which he places all the victims, human or piscine, he may succeed in capturing2.”