Note 86 — Chapter III · TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.

Indian witches are believed to use the same mystic preparation to enable them to fly through the air, as their European sisters are supposed to use the fat of a toad.86 Human fat is believed to be specially efficacious for this purpose. In one of Somadeva’s stories the Brâhman searches for treasure with a candle made of human fat in his hand.87 One of the Mongol Generals, Marco Polo tells us, was accused of boiling down human beings and using their fat to grease his mangonels; and Carpini says that when the Tartars cast Greek fire into a town they used to shoot human fat with it, in order to cause the fire to burn more quickly.88 So, in Europe a candle of human fat is said to have been used by robbers with the Hand of Glory to prevent the inmates waking, and on the Scotch border the torch used in the mystic ceremony of “saining” was made from the fat of a slaughtered enemy.89