Curses!: Tales of Nightmare and Revenge

Any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons place or object is called a curse! Also called an imprecation malediction execration malison anathema or commination in particular curse may refer to such a wish or pronouncement called into being by a supernatural or spiritual power such as a god or gods a spirit or a natural force or else as a kind of spell by magic or witchcraft; in the latter sense a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx. Read this book at your peril. The numinous the humorous and the unexpected converge in these tales of nightmare and revenge. - M T Sands.EXTRACT FROM CURSES!Pungis Curse Mota was a fat old snake sold to Kohli the snake charmer for a few miserable rupee. When Kohli got him to dance to the pungi Mota could barely lift his hood. To the crowd the pungi was magic but to the snake it was a curse. As he raised his hood Mota wanted to spit venom. But the poison had long been drained from his fangs and he was consigned to crawling on his belly back into his basket in defeat. The pungi player danced around the snake mocking him with the silent words of the charm. Listen you fat old snake! You have nothing left to give. Get back in your basket! It will prove to be your casket! Yet the music of the pungi was so maddening Mota was stirred out of his lethargy into a leap. For if Mota was not a boa he had the soul of a constrictor. He clung to Kohlis neck and pulled him down to the ground and dragged the charmer towards the basket. Now the crowd understood what was meant by the pungis curse.