at the bottom, and thus danced against
the person against whom _traga_ was performed until the miserable
creature dropped down and was burnt to ashes. On one occasion a Cutch
chieftain, attempting to escape with his wife and child from a village,
was overtaken by his enemy when about to leap a precipice; immediately
turning he cut off his wife's head with his scimitar and, flourishing
his reeking blade in the face of his pursuer, denounced against him
the curse of the _traga_ which he had so fearfully performed. [299]
In this case it was supposed that the wife's ghost would haunt the
enemy who had driven the husband to kill her.

11. Instances of haunting and laying ghosts.

The following account in the _Rasmala_ [300] is an instance of suicide
and of the actual haunting by the ghost: A Charan asserted a claim
against the chief of Siela in Kathiawar, which the latter refused to
liquidate. The bard thereupon, taking forty of his caste with him,
went to Siela with the intention of sitting _Dharna_ at the chief's
door and preventing any one from coming out or going in until the
claim should be discharged. However, as they approached the town,
the chief, becoming aware of their intention, caused the gates to
be closed. The bards remained outside and for three days abstained
from food; on the fourth day they proceeded to perform _traga_ as
follows: some hacked their own arms; others decapitated three old
women of the party and hung their heads up at the gate as a garland;
certain of the women cut off their own breasts. The bards also pierced
the throats of four of their old men with spikes, and they took two
young girls by the heels, and dashed out their brains against the
town gate. The Charan to whom the money was due dressed himself in
clothes wadded with cotton which he steeped in oil and then set on
fire. He thus burned himself to death. But as he died he cried out,
"I am now dying; but I will become a headless ghost (_Kuvis_) in the
palace, and will take the chiefs life and cut off his posterity." After
this sacrifice the rest of the bards returned home.

On the third day after the Charan's death his Bhut (ghost) threw the
Rani downstairs so that she was very much injured. Many other persons
also beheld the headless phantom in the palace. At last he entered
the chief's head and set him trembling. At night he would throw stones
at the palace, and he killed a female servant outright. At length, in
consequence of