Chapter 54 to pass on the disaster: to pass on the disaster to others

People also sometimes play the role of scapegoat, transferring disasters that threaten others to themselves.When a Sinhalese [native to Sri Lanka] was critically ill and the doctors were helpless, a ghost dancer was called in. He offered sacrifices to the ghost and danced in a mask resembling a ghost, so as to remove the poison from the patient's body. The serious illnesses came upon me one by one.After successfully extracting the cause, the ingenious ghost jumper lay on the bier and pretended to be dead, and was carried to an open space outside the village.When no one was around but himself, he immediately revived and ran back to the village to ask for reward.

There is a part of New Zealand where people feel the need for atonement, and a ritual is performed on a certain person, and all the sins are transferred to him, and he jumps into the river when he was bound with a bundle of ferns Go, untie the grass, let it float out to sea, and let their sin go with it.The lord of Manipur [a state in north-eastern India] used to transfer his crimes to others, generally to a criminal, who could be pardoned by suffering in the chief's stead.In order to avert the crime, the Lord and his wife put on the most beautiful robes and bathed on a shelf in the market place, under which the prisoner squatted.Water dripped from above on the prisoners, and their sins were washed off, falling on the living scapegoat.The lord and his wife handed over their fine robes to their substitutes, and the transgression was done, and they put on new clothes themselves, and mingled with the crowd till dark.In Travancore, when a lord was about to die, they went to a holy Brahman and asked him to promise to take upon himself the sins of the dying man, and they gave him ten thousand rupees as a reward.The Brahmin, who was ready to sacrifice himself on the altar for guilt, was led into the chamber of the dead, and he hugged the dying chief tightly, and said to him, "O king, I will bear all your sins and sicknesses. .May Your Majesty live long and rule happily.” After he took the sickness’s sins on himself, he was sent out of the country and never allowed to return.

In Uganda, when an army returned from an expedition, and the oracle warned the king that some misfortune had befallen his soldiers, it was customary to choose a female slave from among the captives, and from the spoils a cow, a sheep, a poultry, a dogs, and send them a strong guard to send them back to the borders of the country from which they came.There they were broken limb by limb and left to die; they were so crippled that they could not crawl back to Uganda.In order to ensure that the disaster is transferred to the double, whole handfuls of grass are used to rub the bodies of people and animals, and then the straw is tied to the victim.After that, it was announced that the army had been cleaned and could go back to the capital.The new king of Uganda is also going to hurt a man when he takes the throne, and send him to Bunyolo as a scapegoat to take away any filth that the king and queen may have.