Ghost illness of children in north India.

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Ghost illness of children in North India a

Ruth S. Freed & Stanley A. Freed

a

a

Department of Anthropology , American Museum of Natural History , New York, NY, 10024 Published online: 12 May 2010.

To cite this article: Ruth S. Freed & Stanley A. Freed (1990) Ghost illness of children in North India, Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 12:4, 401-417, DOI: 10.1080/01459740.1990.9966034 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01459740.1990.9966034

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Ghost Illness of Children in North India

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Ruth S. Freed and Stanley A. Freed This analysis of the relationship of infant and childhood illness and death to ghost beliefs is based on holistic fieldwork in the late 1950s and the late 1970s in Shanti Nagar (a pseudonym), a village in North India. Illness and the supernatural world are linked by the concepts of ghosts and Fever1, the latter an index of ghost illness, deriving from a supernatural being. The links between ghosts, Fever, and ghost illness involve basic Hindu beliefs, tales from Hindu and Sanskritic texts, ancient curing practices, stress, and local and family histories. A limited number of cases from the many in Ghosts: Life and Death in North India (R. Freed and S. Freed 1991) are here presented to illustrate particular points and general characteristics of ghost illness, including ghost possession, when found in children. The village health culture includes curing practices from the Atharva-Veda (the most ancient Sanskritic literature), Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani Prophetic Medicine, and Western Biomedicine.2

INTRODUCTION

This article describes and analyzes ghost illness and its subsidiary type, ghost possession, as they affect children. Illustrative cases are abstracted and condensed from Ghosts: Life and Death in North India (R. Freed and S. Freed 1991). The case material was collected during two holistic field studies of a village in North India, given the pseudonym of Shanti Nagar, located about 11 miles northwest of Old Delhi. Our introduction to the Delhi region took place in the fall of 1957. The first fieldwork ran from January 1,1958 through July 1959; the next period in the field was from September 1977 to early May 1978. We also directed a survey of fertility and sterilization in 1983 that was carried out by our assistants. The fieldwork was as holistic as possible and included biological, sociocultural, psychological, and ecological elements. The village health culture was a major interest in both field trips. We took a census of each village family early in both field trips. The census provided information on caste, gotra (clan), age, sex, education, employment, and economics. Census interviewing was an excellent means of getting to know people.3 Census information was subsequently used in all interviewing and observation. Before conducting an interview, the census was consulted for useful leads both for posing questions and for evaluating responses. Where random samples were used in surveys, they were selected from our census. Most of our fieldnotes cover observations or lengthy in-depth interviews which we tried to record verbatim to the extent possible.

RUTH S. FREED and STANLEY A. FREED are in the Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural

History, New York, NY 10024. The authors have published on: village India; the Washoe, Mohave, and Navajo in North American ethnology; and the history and theory of anthropology. The research on India has been published widely in journals, especially in a series of monographs in the Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. 401

402 R. S. Freed, S. A. Freed Villagers of all ages and castes contributed information about ghosts and ghost illness. Especially valuable was the historical depth that elderly men and women provided. In 1958-59, a number of villagers born in the 19th century were still alive and remembered the famines and epidemics from early in the century, such as bubonic plague and influenza. The plague in India started at the end of 19th century and raged through the first two decades of the 20th century. The world-wide pandemic of influenza took place in 1918 and 1919 (Wyon and Gordon 1971:174,175; Crosby 1977:5-8). Untimely deaths from these epidemics played a role in later beliefs in ghosts and episodes of ghost illness.


IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE-BOUND AND FOLK PSYCHIATRIC SYNDROMES

Not everyone in the village believes in ghosts. The Arya Samaj, a reform sect of Hinduism which came to Shanti Nagar in 1923, condemns belief in multiple deities and that souls become ghosts. The Arya Samaj accepts only one god, Bhagwan, and the belief in the rebirth of the soul. Most followers of the Arya Samaj in Shanti Nagar are members of the Jat caste. The majority of the population follows Sanatan Dharma (orthodox Hinduism) and Popular Hinduism (R. Freed and S. Freed 1966:673-677; 1980:331-333; Jones 1976:Chs. 1, 2; Saraswati 1956:Ch. 1, Ch. 2, No. 8:46; O'Malley 1935). Followers of Sanatan Dharma generally believe in multiple deities, ghosts, and that the soul becomes a ghost, usually for a relatively brief period, and then passes through a cycle of rebirths, or else is released from the cycle to join with the Universal Absolute, a neuter deity, or becomes a lingering malevolent ghost. The beliefs of people who may be considered followers of Popular Hinduism, as O'Malley defines the term, differ from those of the Sanatanis (followers of Sanatan Dharma) more in emphasis than in basic belief. Like Sanatanis, they believe in multiple deities, especially village mother goddesses and godlings, the cycle of rebirths, and ghosts, but are less apt to be informed about the union of the soul with the Universal Absolute. Popular Hinduism is characteristic of castes known collectively as Shudras and also of the lowest castes which are called Harijans, or scheduled castes. The difference between Samajis (followers of the Arya Samaj), Sanatanis, and followers of Popular Hinduism is by no means clear-cut. Many Sanatanis, the bulk of whom are Brahmans, believe in ghosts, mother goddesses, and godlings. Even some Samajis, whose beliefs are clearly different both from Sanatan Dharma and Popular Hinduism, believe in multiple deities, mother goddesses, and ghosts. Almost all villagers believe in the cycle of rebirths of the soul, although a few said that they could not be sure because they had never witnessed a rebirth. On death, a soul becomes a lingering malevolent ghost for any of three main reasons: 1) dying before the time allotted by Yama, the God of the Dead, for a soul to live; 2) dying tortured from a disease, accident, murder, or suicide; and 3) behavior contrary to village customs, namely, bad actions (karma), which often depend on the village standards of dharma, right behavior. The important element in the fate of the soul is karma (action), for the sum of the soul's past and present actions determines what happens to a person's soul at death, i.e., whether the soul will be reborn, become a lingering ghost, or be released from the round of rebirths to be joined with the Universal Absolute.


Ghost Illness of Children 403 Mothers who believe in ghosts indoctrinate their young children with ghost beliefs. In a group session with five Jat children, ages 5 to 13, they said their mothers told them that there were ghosts, and mothers do not lie. Beliefs become more sophisticated with age, exposure to the principal philosophical elements of Hinduism from word of mouth, public readings of sacred texts by educated villagers, and in recent times of widespread education, from personal reading. The cinema and television now play a role. Among the Samajis, ghost belief is more common among the women than the men. This difference is partially due to a higher educational level among the men, purdah which divides the social activities of women and men, and the belief among men that ghosts are simply due to fear, unseemly in a man but a feminine stereotype. Ghost belief and ghost possession in Shanti Nagar are best understood as a manifestation of animism, a phenomenon that has a world-wide distribution. Tylor recognized and defined animism in the 19th century: ". . . Animism divides into two great dogmas, forming parts of one consistent doctrine: first concerning souls of individual creatures, capable of continued existence after death or destruction of the body; second concerning other spirits, upward to the rank of powerful deities" (Tylor 1958[1871]:10). The pan-human character of animistic beliefs, which include ghost illness and possession, may be contrasted with the concept of Culture-Bound Syndromes, once termed Culture-Related Syndromes (Yap 1951, I960, 1969). In pointing out the problems related to the concept of Culture-Bound Syndromes, Simons (1985a:25) states: "With increasing recognition that culture-specific factors shape all afflictions . . ., the distinction between culture-bound syndromes and other forms of alleged psychological deviance has blurred. . . . Thus as currently used, the category 'culture-bound syndromes' seems not only ethnocentric, but indefinitely expansible. For these and other reasons several recent papers have suggested doing away with the term which has always been at best a residual category. . . . " Hughes (1985a:3-6, 20-22) questions the Culture-Bound Syndromes and suggests that they and Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest be tested in comparison with DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association 1980) to see whether they stand up when full descriptions of these illnesses have been obtained. Such a procedure would provide a check of DSM-III as well as Culture-Bound Syndromes when the details of illness and the socio-cultural, biological, psychological, and ecological correlations are known. Hughes (1985b) further suggests the use of "Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest" in his glossary and review of Culture-Bound or Folk Psychiatric Syndromes (1985b:469 ff.) because "the phenomena of what have traditionally been delimited as the 'culture-bound' syndromes resolve imperceptibly into the general array of folk-conceptualized disorders of psychiatric interest" (Hughes 1985b:470). He excludes "the phenomena of possession and trance" from folk psychiatric syndromes because "the behaviors and experiences of possession and trance are so ubiquitous that there could be no end to the listing of relevant published materials" (Hughes 1985b:471). Ghost beliefs and possession along with trance and possession trance as defined and mapped by Bourguignon (1968; 1976; 1979:247-266, 276-287) have a world-wide distribution and are not limited to Culture-Bound Syndromes or to Folk Psychiatric Syndromes. In a later article, Simons (1988:525-529) dismisses the classification of CultureBound Syndromes, arguing that what is really needed with these so-called syn-


404 R. S. Freed, S. A . Freed dromes are "the causal chains which generate the observed and experienced behaviors" which include "biological, psychological, social, and cultural components which are intertwined in situationally specific ways" (Simons 1988:528). This position is similar to our treatment of animistic beliefs about ghosts, ghost illness, and the soul. We seek to analyze such phenomena in terms of their biological, psychological, social, historical, and cultural components and influences. In Shanti Nagar the cultural elements of ghost illness, such as the underlying theory of retribution due to bad actions of the soul, derive from ancient sacred texts and stories about well known deities and other supernatural beings in the Mahabharata, the world's longest epic, and the Puranas, tales which reinforce the teachings of the Vedas (Sarma 1953:33-36). These stories are known to the villagers from public readings, kathas, by a village Brahman and teacher of Sanskrit followed by questions and discussion and, in the 1950s, skillfully produced amateur theatricals with village actors. Adults recite stories to small audiences of family members and neighbors at the time of festivals, and a number of villagers tell their children tales from the Puranas. Households contain pictures with representations of characters from the epics and the Puranas, which villagers discussed with us while telling the tales. Village curing practices have several sources: the Atharva-Veda, the last of the four Vedas, which establishes the Brahmans' power of exorcism (R. Freed and S. Freed 1979:305; Basham 1954:232-233; Muller 1898,1, AV: 5-9,13-14, 21-22, 25-28), Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani Prophetic Medicine, and Western Biomedicine. In the 1950s, the most prominent elements of Ayurvedic Medicine in the theory and practice of village curing were the tridosas (the three humors-phlegm, bile, and wind) and the effects of "hot" and "cold" foods consumed in the right or wrong seasons of the year. In the 1960s, the Government of India promoted and modernized Ayurvedic Medicine so that villagers now know more about it (Kutumbiah 1969: xvi, Ch. III). Unani Prophetic Medicine, brought to India by Muslims, is a combination of Greek humoral theory (four humors-blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) and animistic beliefs introduced by the Prophet Muhammad. Some of its beliefs and practices are compatible with Hinduism (R. Freed and S. Freed 1979:314; Biirgel 1976:54-61). Western Biomedicine is the latest addition to village medicine. Its least scientific form is known as Popular Pharmaceutical Medicine because it is practiced by pharmacists (compounders) and village curers who learn how to inject antibiotics but have relatively little knowledge of Western Biomedicine (Taylor 1976). By the 1970s, the government had established Ayurvedic and Western Biomedical clinics, dispensaries, and two tuberculosis hospitals within the region. Despite the growing authority of modern Ayurvedic Medicine and Western Biomedicine, the case histories presented here illustrate the persistence of animistic theories of disease causation and curing. The villagers have at their disposal a variety of diagnoses and treatments, and their choice of treatments depends on cost, availability, effectiveness, and the basic beliefs of each family or individual.

GHOST ILLNESS, GHOST POSSESSION, AND FEVER

Ghost illness and ghost possession are based on the belief that a ghost enters its victim and tries to seize its soul. If successful, the ghost causes death. The main


Ghost Illness of Children 405 index of ghost illness is Fever. Another symptom is a voice speaking through a delirious victim, a symptom that may be found in children and adults, but not in infants unable to speak. The voice is identified as the ghost that is trying to take the soul of its victim. Other symptoms are convulsions and body movements, indicating pain and discomfort, and choking or difficult breathing, which are interpreted as a death rattle because a ghost is trying to take the victim's soul through its throat and mouth. In the case of an infant, incessant crying is a symptom. In ghost possession, the subsidiary and dramatic form of ghost illness, the victims go through alternate states of consciousness, such as falling into a semiconscious or unconscious state with a voice or voices speaking from them. Here too, the voices are identified as intrusive ghosts trying to take the victim's soul. During these episodes, the victim may try to commit suicide by drowning in a well or jumping in front of a train. Afterward the victim has amnesia for the possession. In ghost illness and possession, villagers often say that the voice of the ghost coming from the victim is "talking nonsense." According to the psychoanalytical classifications of DSM-III, ghost possession, which was formerly classified as hysterical neurosis, is classified as a Dissociative Disorder, or if a biological factor is involved, as a Somatoform Conversion Disorder (American Psychiatric Association 1980:241-249; 253-260; R. Freed and S. Freed 1985:117; Simon 1980:61, Ch. 13; Veith 1965:10-12). Because this article focuses on the ghost illness of children, including infants, biological and psychological factors are more difficult to determine than for the ghost illness of adults. Infants who cannot speak can be diagnosed as having ghost illness but not ghost possession. Very young children also do not go through the states recognized in ghost possession but they, too, can suffer illness attributed to ghosts. In such cases, the psychological state of the parents in all likelihood is involved in the diagnosis, that is, ghosts may be cultural scapegoats for the illness and death of children (Guzder 1987:69). A mother or father may be relieved of psychic tension from feelings of personal guilt when their infant or young child falls ill and dies by transferring the blame for the death to a ghost because of the belief that whatever befalls a person derives from the sum of the good and bad actions vested in the soul. They will, however, try to help the infant fight ghost illness because the sum of the child's soul's actions may hover between life and death when a ghost attacks and the parent's help may tilt the balance. No ghost possessions were recorded for children under four years of age. Ghost illness was reported at all ages. We suspect that Fever as the sign of ghost illness ultimately stems from numerous tales in ancient Sanskritic literature about Fever, beginning with the Rig-Veda, the first Veda, and running through the Mahabharata and many Puranas. The god, Shiva, plays the main role. He has many aspects and names, symbolic of his various powers. He sends disease and drives it away. He is known as the First Physician; Bhairava, The Destroyer; Bhutesvara, Lord of Ghosts; and Hara, Death, The Remover. As Hara, he is identified with disease and death and his messenger is Fever. In the most pertinent tale as Hara-Shiva, he quarreled with Daksha, Ritual Skill, because Daksha would not allow him to participate in the sacrificial rituals of the other deities. Sati, Daksha's daughter and Shiva's wife, then destroyed herself in the fire of her anger. In retaliation Hara-Shiva sent a monster to cut off Daksha's head, and Shiva began destroying the ritual sacrifices. He was so angry that a drop of


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sweat fell from his forehead, which first became a fire and then a short, red-eyed and red-bearded man named Fever. Brahma, the Creator and Daksha's father, on behalf of himself and the other deities was afraid that Fever would wander the earth uncurbed so he told Shiva that the deities would let him participate in the sacrifices if he curbed Fever. Shiva then restored Daksha by giving him a goat's head and thereafter sent Fever to bring illness and death to humans and animals in limited parts of the world. It is our theory that the many tales about Fever, especially HaraShiva and his messenger, Fever, had the effect of establishing the connection of illness as Fever and the belief that Fever signals ghost illness. The persistence of Fever as an index of illness and the identification of illness by the word Fever in village lore is comparable to the finding that before the introduction of Western Biomedicine in the 19th century, disease in most of the world was identified as Fever (Imperato 1983:34; O'Flaherty 1980:115, 154, 162-163, 230-231, 233; Danielou 1964:189,196-197, 302, 320-322; Dowson 1950:76-79, 298).4 Women of Shanti Nagar who lived through the plague and influenza epidemics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries claimed that formerly almost all their infants and small children died. Although they may have died from many infectious diseases or poor delivery practices, the deaths were attributed to ghost illness. In this patrilineal society where men control property and daughters marry out of their village of birth, sons are preferred to daughters (S. Freed and R. Freed 1985:2172). Since men want sons, and some husbands return a wife to her parents if the young couple has no surviving sons, the blame for deaths may be placed on the mother. Shifting the blame for the death of a son to a ghost, often the ghost of an earlier wife who died, may absolve a mother from ignominy in the eyes of her inlaws, providing her husband is a believer in ghosts. Villagers identified illness with Fever in the mid 20th century as they had in earlier times (Gazetteer Unit, Delhi Administration 1976:868, Table 4: Wyon and Gordon 1971:173; Wood and Maconachie 1882:16-18). From 1930 through 1967, Fever was reported in the Delhi region as a major cause of death for people of all ages. In the 1950s and 1970s, villagers still generally equated illness and Fever and said that illness with Fever was brought by a ghost. This theory of disease has important implications because curing by exorcism is believed essential in curing ghost illness. CURERS AND EXORCISM

Villagers choose a variety of exorcists for ghost illness. Exorcists include members of the Brahman caste who are believed to have supernatural power due to being born as Brahmans and the ability to recite Sanskritic mantras. They are called pandits and are the earliest known exorcists, described in the Atharva-Veda, the fourth and last Veda. Exorcists from other castes are called bhagats, siyanas, and maharajahas in ascending order of eminence. Muslim exorcists are called mullahs. Individual villagers who lack the supernatural mandate of the bhagat may nonetheless practice simple rites of exorcism. Other curers are voids (physicians of Ayurvedic Medicine); compounders (pharmacists), who are usually called doctors because they dispense medicine; village curers, some of whom have been instructed


Ghost Illness of Children 407 about the injection of antibiotics by purveyors of Western Biomedicine and become practitioners of Popular Pharmaceutical Medicine; and doctors practicing Western Biomedicine (R. Freed and S. Freed 1990:Parts II, VI; Bhatia et al. 1975; Taylor 1976). Despite the range of choices, the principal treatment for ghost illness is exorcism. Villagers, however, may combine exorcism with other treatments, such as antibiotic injections to reduce fever and help to fight off ghost illness, as in the case of Mrs. Fence Sitter and her children. Mrs. Fence Sitter, a Brahman, took her children to a Western Biomedical physician when they fell ill with Fever. Although she knew that they had ghost illness because of the presence of Fever and, sometimes, delirium, she first took them to a Western Biomedical physician; then she used a commercial product called Loban, which she bought in the city, to exorcise the ghost causing the illness. Loban is translated as benzoin, and the term and component substances derive from the Arabs (Pathak 1976:969; Morris 1969:124). Mrs. Fence Sitter started a small fire, threw the crystals on it, and had the child sit close to it to inhale the fumes. She began this practice after a small infant fell ill and died. When another child came down with the same symptoms, including Fever, she took her to a physician, after which she exorcised the ghost. The child lived. Thereafter she followed this dual procedure for all her children. When infants who cannot speak fall ill, Fever and other symptoms noted above are often interpreted as ghost illness, although they can be caused by conditions common in the region such as tetanus neonatorum, premature birth, dysentery, birth injuries, postneonatal asphyxia, atelectasis, miscellaneous infections, and accidents to newborns (Gordon, Singh, and Wyon 1965:906-908, Table 1). In such cases, exorcists treat ghost illness by reciting mantras, placing protective amulets on the infants, and wafting unpleasant fumes around them to drive off the ghost. These substances are considered inimical to ghosts and are either placed in the eyes or mouth of the victim, on the forehead, or in a fire near the victim who inhales the fumes. For one very small infant, the exorcist placed ashes on its navel. Treatment for older children and adults is similar except in cases of ghost possession. In possession, the exorcist engages the ghost in conversation, identifies it, tries to satisfy its wishes or demands so that it will leave voluntarily, abuses it verbally, and if necessary, uses physical force, such as slapping the victim's face or pulling his/her hair, to make the ghost leave. Mantras, thought-forms, are recited by exorcists because they are believed to call forth a supernatural power greater than the ghost to drive the ghost away (Danielou 1964:334-335). Families of the victims of ghost possession give exorcists sweets, coconuts, cloth, and money as offerings to be made on behalf of the victim at the shrines for Kalkaji, Goddess of the Cremation Grounds, and Kali, Goddess of Death and Destruction. An exorcist may symbolically cut out a ghost from its victim by making criss-crossed lines on the ground with a knife. Identifying ghosts that speak from the possessed is not easy because the ghostly voices keep changing their stories. If the possessed has a number of dead relatives, friends, and neighbors, the voice of more than one ghost may speak and keep changing identities (R. Freed and S. Freed 1985:169-171). The exorcist tries to persuade the ghost to promise to leave the victim, but such promises are regarded as worthless. Ghosts ask to accompany exorcists when they start to leave so

408 R. S. Freed, S. A . Freed exorcists regularly say they will take the ghost with them, but the person may again be possessed. Conversations between ghosts and exorcists offer ghosts the opportunity to complain and insult to their heart's content, perhaps subconsciously providing catharsis for the victim who has suffered stress for various reasons, including fear of the dead who became ghosts.


CASES The curing practices adopted by individual families derive both from basic beliefs and specific experiences. Although beliefs tend to be similar among large groups of villagers, Sanatanis for example, different experiences and the often conflicting counsel of relatives and friends can result in the adoption of different methods of treatment. Mrs. Fence Sitter had a successful encounter with Western Biomedicine and subsequently combined it with exorcism in treating infant illness. The case of Mrs. Masterji, a Brahman teacher's wife, narrated below, had a different outcome, the rejection of Western Biomedicine. In 1978, Mrs. Masterji described her son's death in 1967, some 15 to 16 days after birth. Still in seclusion after delivery, she had fallen asleep on her cot while nursing her infant son. Her mother-in-law and one sister-in-law slept in the courtyard outside her room in case she needed anything. Another sister-in-law slept in the next room. In the middle of the courtyard, an oil lamp burned during the night. Mrs. Masterji dreamed that she saw a male ghost come from the men's sitting room into the courtyard. He put out the lamp with a wave of his hand in passing, entered her room, and snatched her infant. She awoke and found that her breasts had dried up. The baby was gasping for air and sounded as though he had difficulty breathing, which his mother interpreted as a ghost trying to take his soul. In village lore to dream of a ghost is the same as seeing one. She called the husband of her mother-in-law's sister, who was asleep in the men's sitting room, and her mother-inlaw, who called her daughters. The man took the infant to a siyana in a nearby village who recited mantras and placed a protective amulet around the child's neck. The amulet contained a piece of paper with a mantra written on it. The siyana instructed the man to bring the child back to him in the morning if he lived through the night. Instead, the next morning Mrs. Masterji accompanied by her mother-in-law and the male relative took her infant to relatives in the city. The relatives said, "Going to a siyana is nonsense. If the boy has life in him, he will live." Mrs. Masterji then asked her brother to fetch her husband, who was in the city training to be a teacher. All of them took the baby to a hospital. The doctor examined the child, said they had brought him when he was in serious condition, and gave him oxygen. The infant revived and looked beautiful so they left him with the doctor and went to have tea. When they returned, the baby was dead. When interviewed, Mrs. Masterji said, "A ghost took my son." Based on the symptoms arising in the infant 14-15 days after birth, the physician's statement that they had brought the infant when he was in a serious condition, and the administration of oxygen, the infant probably suffered from atelectasis, a respiratory disease due to incomplete expansion of the lungs. Unless breathing is maintained by


Ghost Illness of Children 409 artificial respiration with oxygen, the baby dies of asphyxiation. Because the child was not brought to the hospital immediately, the oxygen treatment came too late. This possibility was not accepted by the distraught parents so they lost faith in Western Biomedicine (Wingate 1972:48-49, 213-214). Atelectasis should not be confused with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), a leading cause of infant death in the postneonatal period (Hasselmeyer and Hunter 1988:3; Bochner, Veerman, and Van Caille-Bertrand 1988:469). This infant died in the neonatal period when atelectasis takes place (Davey and Wilson 1971:376-377; Wyon and Gordon 1971:152). The mother distrusted hospitals but went to a hospital for the birth of her next child, who in 1978 was still alive. Thereafter, all her children were delivered at home with her sister supervising the delivery and making sure that a sterilized scissors was used to cut the cord. After the infant's death, the parents went to the siyana who first treated the child. He took them to the Ganges to make offerings of balls of flour to the ghost who had taken their son so that the ghost's soul would find release from ghosthood and no longer haunt them. Thereafter Mrs. Masterji wore a locket to protect her from the ghost, and she and her husband went to the Ganges every year on the festivals of Holi and Diwali to make further offerings. After the birth of her next child, she went to the Ganges and offered the new baby to the river by holding a piece of cloth over the water and dropping the infant onto the cloth. Her sister-in-law and a priest raised the child from the river by pulling up the cloth. The parents then gave the priest and husband's sister gifts of money, bought pitchers, and offered them to the Ganges to protect their child from ghosts. This case involved an unsuccessful encounter with Western Biomedicine, which led to distrust of modern physicians, but no differences in basic belief were involved among the village participants. All were Brahman Sanatanis. However, the urban relatives were disbelievers and directed their village relatives to a physician. The boy's death confirmed the beliefs of the village people who henceforth followed traditional practices. On the other hand, the case of "Little Boy and Scapegoat" hinged on different beliefs of villagers, both of men and women and of strict Samajis (disbelievers) and believers in ghosts, all members of the same Jat family. When three-year-old Little Boy fell ill in 1958, his grandmother and her sister, Scapegoat (the grandfather's levirate spouse, who was blamed for everything that went wrong), called a siyana to treat the boy. Although the two women were members of an Arya Samaj family, like many such women they believed in ghosts. When the grandfather, a strict Arya Samaji, found out, he insisted that the boy be treated by an Ayurvedic vaid. When the boy died, Scapegoat, his grandmother, and Honesty (a Brahman and their friend) said that when a siyana is replaced by a vaid or biomedical doctor during the course of the siyana's treatment, the siyana can cause the patient to die. They added that a vaid or biomedical doctor cannot cure ghost illness because he does not have the power to drive out a ghost. A double tragedy resulted from Little Boy's death because the grandfather abused and blamed Scapegoat for the child's death so she committed suicide in the main village well. She was then believed to be a ghost. Thereafter three women claimed to have seen her ghost: a Nai-Barber neighbor; Honesty; and Amiable, another sister of Scapegoat. Amiable was first possessed by Scapegoat's ghost; then she had ghost illness but recovered.


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Like "Little Boy and Scapegoat," the case of "Little Goddess," a ten-year-old Jat girl, illustrates the susceptibility of followers of the Arya Samaj to ghost beliefs and also the heightened stress that often precedes ghost possession. In 1976, Little Goddess and her Brahman girl friend were washing the water buffalo of the Brahman girl's grandfather in the village pond, located between the village crossroads and the cremation grounds, places where ghosts hover and seize their victims. They talked and played while washing the buffalo, which Little Goddess held by a rope. When suddenly the animal plunged farther into the pond, she dropped the rope, and the buffalo pushed her friend into deep water where she drowned. Having died accidentally and before her time, she became a ghost. In 1977-1978, the village was beset by typhoid, malaria and ghost epidemics. The monsoon in 1977 was especially strong, damaging crops and setting the stage for the epidemics. In the fall of 1977, Little Goddess caught typhoid and was delirious with Fever. Shortly after recovering, she was possessed by the ghost of her drowned girl friend. She had been greatly disturbed by her friend's death and may have felt guilty because she dropped the rope. Moreover, Little Goddess's father was often drunk, behavior which caused problems in the family. His mother died when he was a small child and was believed to be a ghost. During 1977-1978, Little Goddess was possessed three times by her girl friend's ghost. Each time, the same village exorcist was called. In a group session of Jat children, including this girl, the children expressed their fear of ghosts but said they had never seen one. They were asked, "If you have never seen a ghost, how can there by any ghosts?" These are the children who then said their mothers told them there are ghosts and mothers don't lie. During one possession, Little Goddess ran across the lane to the dwelling of her uncle where she fell unconscious. Exorcism took place in his courtyard. Her uncle's wife said that children of any age could be possessed by ghosts and that exorcists were called to exorcise ghost illness in infants and small children. The Jat girl's 50-year-old uncle was likewise possessed by ghosts in the first three months of 1978. Since he was a 50-year-old adult, his case history is not described here, but the possession was brought on by a lengthy monsoon, hailstorms which had damaged his crops, and thieves who were stealing cattle and tubewell motors so that he had to sleep in the cattle shed at night where he was regularly possessed. He had not believed in ghosts until his attacks. The case of "Difficult and the Blacksmiths" illustrates a number of features of the ghost complex: transmission between mothers and children, the particular fear of the ghosts of first wives, and ghost illness brought about by dreams and fright. Difficult, the second wife of Sorrowful, the village blacksmith, was filled with fears about ghosts and passed them on to her children. In the epidemics of the first and second decades of the 20th century, all Sorrowful's relatives except his sisters, who were young children, died. He then left his natal village and came to Shanti Nagar. To take care of his sisters, he asked his wife's parents if his wife could come to consummate their marriage and live with him permanently even though she was only 12 years old. His bride was allowed to come. She was very lonely in a strange village without her family and friends, had no one to help her, became depressed, and committed suicide in the main village well, thus becoming the ghost of a first


Ghost Illness of Children 411 wife. Sorrowful remarried and his second wife, Difficult, believed that she and her children were haunted by the first wife. By 1958, Difficult had gone through the menopause. Some years earlier, her husband stopped living with her and instead stayed at his forge. One of her daughters-in-law died after the delivery of her second child, who also died, so they were believed to be ghosts. When her widowed son remarried, he and his wife lived with his father, not his mother, because of her disagreeable personality. Difficult talked about the ghosts of her husband's first wife; that of her daughter-in-law, who was also a first wife; and the ghosts of two other first wives who committed suicide. Because of them, Difficult feared ghosts and passed her fears to her children. She described how her 12-year-old daughter fell ill whenever she was frightened by ghosts. Once this girl accompanied her brother to the mourning rituals for his father-in-law, which took place in another village. The child slept in a cattle shed that night, was frightened, and cried out in her sleep. Afterward for ten or more days she had Fever. Her mother said that she dreamed that she was drowning in a well and then jumped out of it and was all right. Difficult and other neighboring women often gossiped about women who committed suicide or were drowned by their husbands in wells and became ghosts so it is not surprising that her 12-yearold daughter had this dream, especially since she was already married and in a few years would mate with her husband. One of her sons had a similar dream when visiting his mother's parents. That night he awoke frightened; his mother's sister-in-law took him in her arms and he started clawing her. His mother's brother took the boy from her and asked him what he saw. He replied, "Some woman is eating me." Then he fell ill with Fever from ghost illness because of the ghost dream. Difficult said that her children were frightened by dreaming of ghosts; then they had Fever and were ill. She added that if they did not believe in ghosts, they would not be sick. They believed in ghosts, were afraid of them, and fell sick when they saw them in their dreams. She stressed, "There is a power which makes them see ghosts and they are afraid." Thus, Difficult instilled the fear of ghosts and ghost illness in her children through her own fear and constant refrains. She did not like to hear about anyone dying, but when one of her children or grandchildren fell ill, she made such a statement as: "Sprightly [a son] has Fever and is vomiting; he will die." When a small granddaughter was afflicted with boils, she made a similar statement. No matter how mild the ailment was, she said the child would die. All of her grandchildren under age five wore amulets to protect them from ghosts. Although the ghost illnesses of her young son and 12-year-old daughter started with dreams of ghosts and then became Fever and ghost illness, they fit into an analysis of anxiety disorders made by Good and Kleinman (1985:311-314). What they term "fright illnesses" are caused by fear reaction and the startle reflex. However, the anxiety, fright, and dreams of Difficult's children were generated by her indoctrination of them with a fear of ghosts, Fever, ghost illness, and death. For children to be in a strange place, an upsetting experience especially at night, helps foster fears expressed in dreams. The children's dreams were tied into Difficult's constant statements that they would die and her gossip about first wives drowning in wells and becoming ghosts because they committed suicide or were murdered.

412 R. S. Freed, S. A . Freed Difficulty descriptions of the dreams and ghost illness of her son and daughter bear some resemblance to Susto but are different from Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest, as defined by Simons (1985b:329), found in Mexico and among Mexican Americans, and described by Gillin (1948) as Magical Fright, in which the soul or souls of an individual take flight and cause illness. To cure a person suffering from Susto, the soul or souls must be restored (Rubel 1964; Rubel, O'Nell, and Collado 1985). Kleinman (1981:4, 195-196, 251, 318) reports fright illness in Tapei, China, which includes a number of disorders in children. Special healing ceremonies are performed for recalling the soul, but family members may also take the child to a Western Biomedical physician. In the Hinduism of Shanti Nagar, when a soul leaves the body, the individual dies; also, a person has only one soul. The emphasis is on ghost illness, indexed by Fever, and the ghost trying to seize the soul, due to


karma.

Three cases of the deaths of babies only a few days old illustrate the connection of ghosts, infant death, a ceremony of the life cycle known as Mother Sixth, and disease, especially tetanus neonatorum. In 1958, two women of the Sweeper caste claimed that a ghost referred to as Cat Woman had taken the souls of their infant sons within a few days from birth. Cat Woman died next door to the dwellings of these two women where it was said that at night a light was seen in her empty house. She died without surviving children and became a much feared ghost because villagers said her ghost took the form of a cat who tried to seize newborn infants. Ghosts were sometimes thought to take the form of an animal, plant, or tree. The third case concerned a young woman of the Bairagi caste whose first child, a son, died in 1959 just before the sixth day from birth. She and her husband said that a ghost took the boy's soul. An elderly great-aunt told us that the couple had forgotten to make an offering to ward off the ghost when the boy was born. The symptoms of these deaths were similar to those for tetanus neonatorum (Berkow 1982:113). Village mothers believe that up to the sixth day after delivery a ghost is most apt to seize their babies, based on the frequency with which infants die during that period. Devices such as a lamp burning all night, grains scattered on the floor, and an iron chain forming a magical circle around the cot on which mother and infant rest were and still are used to protect mother and infant from a ghost during the early dangerous days of the lying-in (R. Freed and S. Freed 1980:363). In this village and many parts of India, the celebration of Mother Sixth when an infant survives to the sixth day marks the end of the time an infant is most vulnerable to a ghost taking its soul. Mother Sixth has been linked with tetanus neonatorum by various writers (Underhill 1921:103-104; Bhattacharyya 1953:200; Stevenson 1971:9-11; R. Freed and S. Freed 1985:135; 1980:372 ff.). Mother Sixth is associated with Bemata, a goddess, who visits a new mother and child after midnight at the beginning of the sixth day and writes the infant's fortune on its head. Practically all village women celebrate this day, including Jat women, for they believe that the writing on the infant's head indicates that it will live and provides its fortune, thus relieving the mother of anxiety about the child's survival. After Bemata's visit, during the sixth day the midwife who delivered the infant draws a sketch of Bemata on the wall inside the house where mother and child are secluded. The infant, dressed in a little shirt, is held in the arms of the mother, who


Ghost Illness of Children 413 sits on a stool, bowing her head in worship at the drawing of Bemata (R. Freed and S. Freed, 1980: 372-378; for regional variants on Bemata, see Nautiyal 1961:54; Blackburn et al. 1989:82, 91, 92,179, 185, 186, 265). The prognosis of tetanus neonatorum fits the celebration of Mother Sixth, for the disease causes an infant's death within six days from birth. Tetanus is caused by an exotoxin excreted by Clostridiwn tetani, a bacillus (Berkow 1982:113-117,1721). The source of the bacillus is the implement the village midwife uses to cut the umbilical cord. The family of a woman soon to bear a child furnishes the implement; in the past it was often an unsterilized sickle used in agricultural work and, therefore, could carry the bacillus from contact with soil or animal feces. A mother may, also, develop puerperal fever due to unhygienic delivery practices. When the mother of a newborn infant dies, the baby may die of neglect or starvation, especially if the child is a girl. In 1958 when a Jat mother died about a month after the birth of her daughter and the infant died a fortnight later, the deaths were attributed by neighbors to ghosts. In fact the mother died from the effects of bearing many children without proper care, arising from seclusion ahead of time to work in the fields and house shortly after delivery, infections in her leg, arm, and breast, in addition to not having been given the proper medical care when she requested it. By the time she was taken to a hospital, it was too late and she died. Her daughter died of starvation because no one nursed her although bottle feeding was known (R. Freed and S. Freed 1989:146-147).

CONCLUSION

Scenarios of infant illness, curing, and death in Shanti Nagar take myriad forms. Sometimes the realization that an illness is serious may be so late that little can be done before death. The time it takes to run through one of the common sequences of recourse to medical aid—for example, first a village curer, then a nearby clinic, perhaps a vaid, and finally a hospital—may be so long as to be fatal. This situation exists in all countries; people are reluctant to seek medical aid for problems initially felt to be trivial, or they are unable to decide what to do. Moreover, some deaths are sudden. For example, one day a five-year-old boy of the Potter caste came home from playing, felt bad, and lay down on his cot so his father called an exorcist who was visiting a nearby wealthy Jat landowner. While the exorcist was trying to drive out the ghost, the boy died. Just before he died, black clouds formed over the house; his mother then knew that they were an omen that a ghost would take her son. Villagers judge exorcism and Western Biomedicine differently. Exorcists can fail without losing the confidence of villagers because of the theory of karma and the belief that ghosts do not keep their promises. Moreover, villagers say that exorcists may turn on patients and cause them to die if, during the course of the exorcist's treatment, one resorts to other types of practitioners. This belief strengthens the authority of exorcists. Exorcists spend time talking with the family of the person possessed, thus finding out about family relations and building confidence. Villagers lose faith in practitioners other than exorcists if their treatments fail because they do not have supernatural power and do not build rapport by talking with the family. Practitioners of Western Biomedicine, but not the medicine itself, seem to be

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on trial with the villagers because of lack of familiar village techniques, the villagers' unease with the rather mechanical approach of doctors, and their unfamiliarity with the setting of doctors' offices and hospitals. Nonetheless, from the 1950s they recognized that hospitals can be used for many health problems.


NOTES 1. The use of the word Fever, written with a capital F, derives from a supernatural being named Fever in the Mahabharata and the Puranas as pointed out by O'Flaherty (1980:162) with the precise identification of the text. Villagers generally used the word bukhaar for Fever. When written with a small f, fever is associated with Western Biomedical usage, indicating a temperature above the normal range. This temperature varies depending on circumstances (Berkow 1982:5-7, 1886; Kiester 1984:171-173). The word most often used for ghost was bhut. To mask the identity of individuals and to emphasize the importance of individuals in culture, they have been given English pseudonyms, which make it easier for at least non-Indian readers to remember the principal characters than would be the case with two common styles of pseudonyms: replacement of the true name by another Indian name or by initials. 2. The term Western Biomedicine includes Western Medicine, Western-Scientific Medicine, Biomedicine, and Allopathic Medicine. Villagers formerly identified Western Biomedicine as Angrezi (English) Medicine. The terminology is similar to Ayurvedic Medicine, which sometimes is identified as Indian Medicine. Recently Jeffery (1988:12), a professor at Edinburgh University, explained his usage of Western doctors and Western Medicine as based on Indian usage, i.e., as identified with the British and that Western doctors claim the term Allopathic is too narrow. 3. In 1958 the total population of Shanti Nagar was 799 people (407M:392F); in 1977, it was 1324 (695M:629F). There were 13 castes in 1958 and 14 in 1977. The castes with the most people and families were: Brahman Priest, Chamar Leatherworker, Chuhra Sweeper, Gola Potter, and Jat Farmer (R. Freed and S. Freed 1991, Pt. I). 4. Identification of the scholars consulted for Sanskritic literature: The late professor Dowson taught Hindustani at the Staff College in England. Danielou and O'Flaherty are Sanskritic scholars, Danielou in Paris and O'Flaherty at the University of Chicago. The page references from the Mahabharata and the Puranas, cited by the latter two scholars, include the sources from which the tales about Fever derive. The Puranas are identified by name. O'Flaherty (1980:10) gives the following dates for the texts of the Mahabharata and the Puranas: Mahabharata, c. 300B.C. to A.D. 300; Puranas: Early Puranas, five of them, c. 300B.C. to A.D. 500; Middle Puranas, 10 of them, c. A.D. 500 to 1000; Later Puranas (all others), c. A.D. 1000 to 1500. Daniélou (1964) includes the references to the Mahabharata and Puranas within his text on the pages cited.

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Ghost illness in a north Indian village.

Lead exposure in mentally retarded children from North India.

Chronic bronchitis in North India.

Stature in Holocene foragers of North India.

The Role of 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Deficiency in Iron Deficient Children of North India.

Epidemiology of foodborne illness: North America.

Scrub typhus in children at a tertiary hospital in north India: clinical profile and complications.

Psoriasis in North India. Geographical variations.

Growth in Children Treated for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Single Institution Report from North India.

Thrombocytopenia in children with vivax malaria: a study from north India.

Occlusal Traits of Primary Dentition among Pre-School Children of Mehsana District, North Gujarat, India.

Feverish illness in children.

Some Characteristics of Mental Illness in North-East Scotland.

Occult Dirofilariosis in Dogs of North Eastern Region in India.

Leprosy Continues to Occur in Hilly Areas of North India.

Rubella outbreak in the union territory of Chandigarh, North India.

Predominance of modern Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in North India.

Seroprevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in North Eastern India.

Clinico-demographical profile of keratomycosis in Delhi, North India.

Identifying predictors of childhood anaemia in north-east India.

High frequency of neural-tube defects in North India.

Validation of point-of-care testing for coeliac disease in children in a tertiary hospital in north India.

Safety of street foods in Agartala, North East India.

Scrub Typhus in a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India.