Research source

One of the most noted witch-finders in the Bilâspur District of the Central Provinces had two most effectual…

Date of account: Second edition published 1896
Source: The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Reference: The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 2 (of 2) · selected passage 158
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-25

Record summary

One of the most noted witch-finders in the Bilâspur District of the Central Provinces had two most effectual means of checkmating the witches

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

One of the most noted witch-finders in the Bilâspur District of the Central Provinces had two most effectual means of checkmating the witches. "His first effort was to get the villagers to describe the marked eccentricities of the old women of the community, and when these had been detailed, his experience soon enabled him to seize on some ugly or unlucky idiosyncrasy, which indicated in unmistakable clearness the unhappy offender. If no conclusion could be arrived at in this way, he lighted an ordinary earthen lamp, and repeating consecutively the name of each woman in the village, he fixed on the witch or witches by the flicker of the wick when the name or names were mentioned. The discovery of the witch soon led to her being grossly maltreated, and, under the Native Government, almost invariably in her death.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.