Alchi

In the traditional religion of the Malto people of Jharkhand and Bihar, who are also known as the Maler or Paharia, an Alchi is a fearsome evil spirit. There are various types. All Alchi are usually invisible, showing themselves only very rarely.

• Masani Alchi lives near the village graveyard and attacks people who pass by there at night. Women who come to the graveyard in the middle of the night and dance naked for this spirit’s pleasure are rewarded with supernatural power (see Churgin).

• A Pori is the ghost of a human man, woman, or child. It too lives in the graveyard, but sometimes wanders outside its boundaries wearing a dirty cloth. It appears black with wide white eyes. When a Pori attacks someone it causes gastric distress.

• A Jampori is the ghost of a demno or Malto shaman. After death, he goes to live at the base of a tree—usually a banyan—where he is sometimes seen around noon or midnight. He has long hair and gaint, round, fearsome eyes. He is especially dangerous to pregnant women. He carries a staff to beat his victims with.

• Dinde is a black ghost with yellow eyes who lives in mango trees. One account says it is the ghost of an unmarried woman who troubles men and women indiscriminately, while another says it is a male spirit who only molests women.

• Mara Kambe is another tree-dweller with long matted black hair, white eyes, and backwards-turned feet and hands. He is sometimes seen swinging through vines in the forest. Mara Kambe is very dangerous to pregnant women, whom he always attacks.

• Jame is another male spirit who lives on a black stone. He attacks both men and women, and also murders infants. He is propitiated with black chickens or black pigeons.