Madness is caused by various evil spirits throwing themselves
into mortals, ghosts with red eyes which flash like lightning. The
"amok" devil which comes from the swamp, differs from those which
drive people to commit suicide -- these again being quite distinct
from those which cause merely harmless lunacy.
It not infrequently happens that when a woman (or more rarely a man)
is insane or is very ill, she is urged to admit that a devil has
possessed her, and to become a medicine woman. By this means she
becomes well of her complaint, and at the same time acquires the
power of helping others to cast out devils. But she is not able of
her own accord to determine whether she shall become a medicine woman
or not. For three nights she is taken through the ceremony of BAYOH,
afterwards to be described, without a rattan swing, and then for three
nights with the swing. If the indications are favourable, some three
weeks are allowed to elapse before she undergoes the final test of
five nights with the swing. The first BAYOH is to satisfy the people,
the second to appease the demon; and if her malady is cured by the
eleven nights of artificial hysteria, she is considered to have been
accepted both by men and spirits in her new role of exorciser.
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