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The agent (phii paub)

Phii paub can be hosted by either a male or a female living person. In
everyday life, such people cannot be distinguished because they are like
other normal, ordinary people (pen khon thammada). The human host
becomes known only in the course of the exorcism procedure after a victim
has been possessed.

Village theory is that a man or woman who is a mau wicha, an expert
in the magical arts of love magic, or protective magic (such as making
amulets that make the wearer bullet-proof), or control of epidemics (like
cholera), is the person who is prone to harbour a phii paub, if he acts
immorally or contravenes taboos associated with his dangerous but potent
art. Since his special powers derive from this secret knowledge of charms
and spells, it is said that under certain conditions these spells themselves
turn into phii paub. Typical circumstances that lead to this transformation
are: (1) if a mau wicha discontinues his practice; (2) if he uses spells
immorally by causing diseases in people rather than curing them, or if he
exploits his patients by charging excessive fees (the accusation here being
that he himself sends disease in order to extract fees); (3) if he fails to
respect and propitiate his teacher; or (4) if he breaks food taboos associated
with his profession.

To comment on 3 and 4 first. The teacher-pupil relationship is emphasized
not only among monks but also among all village cult specialists,
especially those connected with the malevolent spirits. Sometimes a patient
becomes a practitioner after his cure, learning the technique from his
curer. In this case there is a double bond: patient-curer, pupil-teacher.
A spirit specialist must pay homage to his teacher at the beginning of
each ritual; some practitioners say that it is the spirit of the teacher which
enters them and gives them the power to make their spells effective, or if
they are exorcists, it is the teacher's spirit that possesses them and enables
them to combat the spirit possessing the patient. Hence the failure of
a mau wicha to propitiate his teacher is a serious ritual mistake.

All controllers of magical powers (mau wicha) and all exorcists (mau
tham) are said to have special food taboos associated with their practice.
Thus for instance, a mau wicha must never eat the placenta of a cow
(rok wua rok kuay) which is ordinarily eaten by villagers: if he does he
will become host to a phii paub. The association here appears to be an
analogy between, on the one hand, a cow and its placenta (a `kind of'
calf) and a woman and her placenta at childbirth, and on the other hand,
the human host and the phii paub which resides inside it. The phii paub,
moreover, usually attacks and penetrates women who appear to be the
most frequent victims of phii paub attack. However, in addition to the
similarity between phii paub and placenta, there are also differences.
Thus the phii paub inside a person and the placenta of a cow or a woman
are both analogous and opposed, because the latter represents the innocuous
remains of life-giving pregnancy and birth, while the former connotes
disease-producing internal growth.

Implicit in 1 and 2 above—that the practitioner of magical arts must
not discontinue his practice, nor must he on the other hand misuse it—
is an ambivalence in value judgments about those who deal with spells
and charms and exercise extra-human powers. Such powers have their
use in the society and must be kept available for those who need them.
But, at the same time, such powers are in themselves dangerous; they are
a double-edged sword, cutting both ways. He who dabbles in them in
order to control spirits is in danger of becoming their victim or agent.
Thus a man who learns to control disease through spells may himself
sometimes send or cause disease; a man who gives love magic to earnest
lovers may himself come to fornicate with village wives; the man who
exorcizes malevolent spirits may himself become a sorcerer sending spirits
to possess his enemies.

The ambiguous structural position of the mau wicha and the mau tham
exorcist is a reflection of this ambivalent evaluation of their ritual roles

and the rituals they conduct. In the hierarchy of evaluation of the different
cults and their practitioners, they are not accorded anything like the
respect and approval the monk enjoys, nor are they looked upon as
prestigious village elders and leaders as mau khwan are.

Now village theory attributes the historical origin of phii paub to the
transformation of spells into an evil force inside a magical expert, be it
man or woman (the latter are sometimes said to dabble in love magic),
who uses spells to achieve supra-human effects. But when it comes to
the persistence of phii paub after the death of the original human host
the theory takes two directions. One possibility, it is said, is that before the
host dies, he or she transfers the spirit to his or her son or daughter. It is
important to note that this is a case of transference, not automatic inheritance
at birth. The ageing host, before his or her death, transfers to one child
only. The mode of transference is poorly articulated:[1] it is said by some that
the parent spits saliva into the mouth of a loved child, or on to its skull.

But there is another mode of spirit persistence which does away with
the need for a living human host. Village theory asserts that when a man
or woman who has phii paub dies, the spirit (phii) itself does not die but
will be free-floating and wander in the village and attack one person after
another. Here the phii paub is seen as capable of existing apart from any
human owner. When a person is attacked by a phii paub one part of the
exorcism ceremony consists of getting the patient to name the person in
whom the spirit resides or from whom it emanates. In the case of a disembodied
spirit it is said that the patient may name the host who, although
dead, has returned to the village in spirit form.

This kind of malevolent disembodied spirit shades into another type
which also attacks humans, especially mothers at childbirth. The spirit
in question is called phii prai and is generated in a pregnant woman
dying with the child inside her. It is said that when she dies the child
inside her turns into a phii prai and consumes the mother's blood. The
dead mother is taken to the cemetery, a `surgeon' is invited to cut the
womb and extract the child's corpse, and the mother and child are buried
separately so that the child will not go on existing as a phii prai. For if the
child is not removed and separately buried, it will grow into a monster
which sucks the blood from other mothers at childbirth, or from victims
of physical injury who bleed profusely. Thus the notion of phii prai is centred around violent and sudden death, especially the death of pregnant
mothers. Profuse bleeding at childbirth is a symptom of phii prai attack,
and may provoke the holding of an exorcism ceremony to stop it.