| 释义 |
‖ pishachi India.|piːˈʃɑːtʃiː|
Also piśaca, pisachi, pishasha, and numerous other variants.
[ad. Skr. piśāca (masc.), piśācī (fem.), a demon.]
A demon or devil. Also attrib.
The forms in -a properly refer to male devils, and those in -i to female.
1807F. Buchanan Journey from Madras III. xiv. 17 They believe, that such men as die accidental deaths become Pysáchi, or evil spirits, and are exceedingly troublesome, by making extraordinary noises in families, and occasioning fits, and other diseases, especially in women. 1816Asiatic Jrnl. II. 367/1 Whirlwinds..at the end of March and the beginning of April..carry dust and light things along with them, and are called by the natives peshashes, or devils. 1819Trans. Bombay Lit. Soc. I. 219 Beneath him..is a small squat figure, apparently a peisach or demon. These demons or peisaches are the usual attendants of Shiva. 1827J. C. & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth (ser. 1) 12 As a little girl was playing round me one day with her white frock over her head, I laughingly called her Pishashee, the Indian name, I believe, for their white devil. 1837J. C. Maitland, Lett. from Madras (1843) 107 She used to go out and howl so that the servants were afraid to come near her, saying she made ‘one pishashi (devil) noise’. 1885G. C. Whitworth Anglo-Indian Dict. 252/1 Piśácha.., the name of a class of spirits always imagined as fierce and malignant. 1886Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 540/1 Pisachee. 1917L. H. Gray Mythol. All Races vi. 67 With the Raks̱ases in later literature rank the Piśācas as foes of the fathers. 1920Encycl. Relig. & Ethics X. 43/2 In modern India a piśācha is a kind of ghoul, usually the ghost of some one who has died an unnatural death, or for whom the requisite funeral rites have not been performed... In S. India the small circular storms, called ‘devils’ by Europeans, are called piśāchīs, or ‘she-ghouls’. 1924R. E. Enthoven Folklore of Bombay iv. 148 Bhuts and pishachas—ghosts, male and female—can be prevented from doing harm by recourse to certain processes. 1927S. Ketkar tr. Winternitz's Hist. Indian Lit. I. 133 Very numerous, too, are the incantations which are directed against whole classes of demons.., especially against the Piśācas (goblins) and Rāks̱asas (devils). 1952E. Sykes Everyman's Dict. Non-Classical Mythol. 171 Pishashas, in Vedic myth malignant woodland spirits, who disliked travellers, and especially pregnant women. 1968B. Walker Hindu World ii. 214 Piśācha, a race of people classed in the Vedas as lower than the rákshasas (ogres), and amongst the most vile and noxious of beings. 1973J. Dowson Classical Dict. Hindu Mythol. 234 Pis̱āchas (mas.), Pis̱āchī (fem.), fiends, evil spirits, placed by the Vedas as lower than Rākshasas. 1977M. & J. Stutley Dict. Hinduism 226/1 Piśāca(s), flesh-eating demonic beings. Ibid. 226/2 Piśācī, a she-devil. |