We have received from a reader in India (Lt.-Col. S.T. Avetoom) a cutting from the “Madras Mail” giving an account of some poltergeist phenomena which a few weeks ago greatly disturbed the inmates of a house in Georgetown (Madras). Beginning on a Wednesday night they were repeated on the Thursday night and continued all day and night on the Friday. Outside stones and dirt were thrown at the door, while within the pictures and brackets on the walls and all the articles on the tables were flung about the rooms. The disturbances were witnessed and testified to by a great number of respectable persons. On the Saturday morning a magician from Malabar, who had heard of the trouble, arrived and undertook to drive out the poltergeists. This, on the receipt of a fee, he proceeded to do and there was no recurrence of the trouble. The magician told the correspondent of the “Mail” that the mischief was the work of “Kuttichathans” (a low and despicable class of spirits).
Light, March 1916.
Illustration based on a photo of the Kuttichathan theyyam ritual from Kerala by Ajeeshkumar4u.