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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A Second Pilgrimage Around the World: the Southern Route|4-169}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A Second Pilgrimage Around the World: the Southern Route|4-169}}


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{{Style P-No indent|would tottle off the next morning, and stand beneath it till
the unseen agency plucks and drops a green branch upon the sufferer's head.
This done, and the invalid is at once made whole! They declared they had seen
persons spiritually obsessed and dragged, screaming and wrestling, along the
way—''dragged'' by these unseen intelligences, and thrown into water with a
reckless malignancy; they had seen persons beaten by unseen forces, believed
to be spirits, till the marks from the invisible lash were visible, crimson,
red, and terribly swollen. They had seen people out in the fields begin to
tremble, and the head begin to whirl violently, when they would be levitated
and hurled up into an adjoining tree. They had seen two families in a domestic
quarrel become gradually enveloped in a dark, hazy cloud, when the familiar
spirits of each would appear, visible and tangible, engaging freely in the
fight. They had seen a group sitting under a clump of trees, and chanting some
rude battle-hymn, when one, seized with trembling, shaking, gasping, and
violent head-whirling, would be lifted up, up, and borne away out of sight,
remaining absent for months; and they had also seen, and related to me,
instances of nervous prostration, suspension of breathing and magnetic
vampirism, which—''all'' of which I shall in due time put before the public.
Marvels of this character, and those more wonderful, are carefully concealed
from missionaries, and from the English generally, whom they consider
intruders and foreign monsters.}}


{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |4-171}}
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|devil-worship.}}</center>
 
All occult and superhuman manifestations transpiring in the East, pass under
the current name of "devil-worship." The rude and uncharitable term came
originally, no doubt, from the Roman Catholic missionaries. For, whatever of
the spiritual occurs within their range of observation and experience, ''not''
in accordance with the dogmas of the Roman Church, is at once ascribed to the
devil.
 
"Devil-worship," says the Rev. T. R. Stevenson of Colombo, Ceylon, "has a
tremendous hold upon the people. It is highly probable that, together with
serpent worship, it was the religion of the aborigines. Devil-priests,
devil-dances, and devil-trances are resorted to in cases of sickness; and
their grotesque antics, weird chantings, and wild appearances are believed to
propitiate the demons and heal the diseases."
 
Treating of the "Asiatic races," Prof. Wilson says that "demon-worship, which
prevailed so extensively over India and Ceylon, appears to have been an
original superstition, having a firm hold of the people for three thousand
years. Diseases are attributed to malignant spirits in Ceylon, called
'Yakkos,' whom they seek to propitiate by sacrifices, by burning incense and
various ceremonies. They ascribe some diseases to these evil spirits. This
kind of worship still occurs in different parts of the island, and is employed
by the natives to heal diseases instead of European medicines. . . . But after
the introduction of Buddhism, which strictly forbids the shedding of blood,
demon-worship began to decline."
 
Why these occult practices, so common among the natives of the East, should be
called "worship," is to me unaccountable; for the Asiatics no more worship
these demons or spiritual intelligences, than Protestants worship the Bible, or
Roman Catholics the saints. If the spirits are good, they encourage and honor
them; but if evil, they either propitiate or exorcise them. I have frequently
attended their ceremonies of exorcism, or the casting-out of devils! They are
similar to the methods in use in the New Testament times of the apostles.
Gautama Buddha not only cast out demons as did Jesus, but he laid down rules,
and prescribed the ''Paritta'' ceremony for exorcism. "The Paritta, or the use
of exorcism, is frequently resorted to as a protection against apprehended
danger from disease, or demoniacal influences."*
 
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|a day with the buddhist priests at widyodaga
college.}}</center>
 
August 8th, accompanied by Doncarolis, a well-to-do Buddhist gentleman, and
Mr. C. Alwis, a teacher and translator of Singhalese and Pali, I went out to
the Widyodaga College, established in 1873. There were over sixty priests in
this educational institution as students; besides a number of youthful laymen
in the preparatory classes for priests. While the natural sciences are not
ignored in this College, they are considered of much less importance than
morality or religion, and accordingly most of the time is devoted to the study
of the Sanscrit, the Pali, and Oriental literature generally.
 
There are three ''High Priests'' in Ceylon, two at Kandy, and one at Colombo.
The latter, Prof. H. Sumangala, is the High Priest of the Adams' Peak diocese,
and the President of this Oriental College that I visited. The priests in this
College are celibates. They eat but one meal a day, and that before 12 {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |4-171}}
 
All occult and superhuman manifestations transpiring in the East, pass under
the current name of "devil-worship." The rude and uncharitable term came
originally, no doubt, from the Roman Catholic missionaries. For, whatever of
the spiritual occurs within their range of observation and experience, ''not''
in accordance with the dogmas of the Roman Church, is at once ascribed to the
devil.
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