The Curse Of Chicken Ghost (雞鬼咒)

Indochinese hill tribes such as Yao or Hmong can use the most ordinary things such as poultry and plants to cast a spell. Below is just one of the curses to make your opponent bold and dumb.  Before I go into the ritual proper, let me tell you a story told to me by my late grandmother who was from Guangxi, China:

 

It was during the Chinese Civil War around 1949, a troop of Kuomintang soldiers retreated to a village in Guangxi province. They decided to camp in the village for a few days while waiting for further orders from their command center. During that time, a young soldier who likes to flirt around acquainted with a widow and took her as his ‘godmother’. So, this young soldier decided to ‘stay’ in the widow’s house and get him comfortable.

 

A few days later, the captain decided that it was time for the troop to make a move. After the roll call, he found the young soldier dumbfounded and behaved just like a chicken in his godmother’s house. They tried all available methods but failed to make the youngster return to his senses. At the same time, another solder reported to the captain that he saw the widow took a chicken and do some mumbo jumbo to a chicken.

 

Hence they suspected that black magic was at play. So the captain took out his revolver and told the widow, “tomorrow morning we’re going to move with this young man. If he is still not himself, then you take a bullet!” The widow knew the captain meant business, so she had to release the spell and let the soldier go.

 

It is not difficult to cast this spell… someone would say it is inhumane, but there wasn’t anything like ‘animal rights’ back then. In order to cast this spell, one only has to get a big cock, pull out all feathers on its head and write the name and date of birth of the intended target on the bold chicken head. After that the chicken is put into a cage and then the cage is covered with a black cloth.

 

A few hours later, the target will behave and sound like a chicken. The sorcerer must be careful as not to let the chicken die or the victim’s life will also flies. In this case, there is no possible cure.