Tjoelicks: Phantom Child Sacrifices in the East Indies March 15, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
This is a fascinating case of a well attested nineteenth- and twentieth-century phenomenon: the connection of bogeymen to new technologies and foreigners (particularly when foreigners had, as in colonial societies, a great deal of power)
[1862] A very curious superstition agitates at present in an alarming manner the native population [in Batavia, the Dutch East Indies], and we have been requested by several parties to direct public attention to it. It is required for the erection of any important buildings or works to offer as sacrifice a number of human heads or eyes, and in order to obtain these the Tjoelick, or collectors of the objects of sacrifice, rove at night about the huts, ensnaring children, or sometimes even full-grown persons. It is said that they are, at the present time, busily occupied in this inhuman pursuit, as, owing either to the erection of a bridge, or of the gasworks, an extensive sacrifice is required; this sacrifice is to consist, according to some authorities, of three small barrels full of human eyes; according to others of three hundred human heads. The proprietor of the work is, of course, the party who gives the order; but, according to the generally-received opinion, it is the Government itself that requires the sacrifice.
Luise White’s Speaking with Vampires looks at similar phenomenon in colonial Africa. It is interesting how it is connected to the arrival of gas.
These discreditable stories spread such terror among the population that no one can venture out at night; mothers watch their children with trembling anxiety, and each tongue is busy with fearful tales. We know not whether religious fanatics, with more or less dangerous intentions, have given rise Ito these stories; or whether, in reality, some outcasts are found capable of such enormities. The police recently laid hold of several parties who were under suspicion, but who, after inquiry, were set at liberty. True it certainly is, that robbers take advantage of the general fear, and by shouting ‘Tjoelick, Tjoelick!’ drive the inhabitants from their buildings which they then enter and pillage. Some suppose that the whole affair is originated by some evil-disposed persons who are opposed to the lighting of the town by gas, either out of superstitious fear of this mysterious novelty, or because the opportunities for nightly robberies will then diminish. We earnestly hope that the police may succeed in the important and difficult task of ascertaining the true grounds of this dangerous superstition, and in increasing the confidence of the people towards the Government.
Other technological or colonial bogeymen: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
For a Spanish example.
