This is a story when I was of 12-13 years age. My father is the youngest among three brothers. All three families live separately within the same village. My second uncle’s (Mahila Baa) house lies in about 15 minutes walking distance within my village and my eldest uncle’s (Thula Baa) house lies about 5 minutes walking distance from ours and about 10 minutes walking distance from my second uncle’s house, all in random direction. My second uncle fell sick. He used to talk unconsciously, scratched himself, make random sounds that we couldn’t understand. We all began to feel afraid of his sickness. At that time, we did not have any medical person or hospitals nearby. Any sort of sickness were asked to be and cured by local witch doctors (Dhami/Jhakri).
The Dhami we called to cure Mahila Baa, performed his rituals and told us that Mahila Baa was sick due to the possession by headless ghost (Murkata). The Dhami did all he could to exorcise the evil possession away and gave some herbal medicine (which he would not disclose the name to anybody except his disciples). But, Mahila Baa was not feeling well. He was worsening than before. The Dhami told us that once possessed by the Murkata, it’s inevitable death and rarely have anybody lived after such sickness. Because of Mahila Baa’s self destructive behavior, we were all afraid to let him be alone. So we asked the villagers to accompany him every night in turn and help to cure him.
Mahila Baa had weakened because of the wounds and scratches that he did to himself. So the villagers were also afraid to accompany him at night in fear of getting hurt. Those who stayed with him used to hear gibberish sounds that he made. Often they would hear horse-steps outside and some old men and children talking and crying. Due to fear, nobody would look outside the whole night. The neighbors, though frightened, gave company of two people every night for 4 nights. The fifth night was my eldest uncle’s turn. In the evening he finished his household and went for dinner. While he was eating, he heard somebody calling from the front yard. Thula Baa was sure to recognize the voice was of Mahila Baa. He was surprised and chilled with fear because Mahila Baa was actually sick and couldn’t move out of his house. He looked outside in curiosity but nobody was there. It was dark outside and the moon was hiding behind the clouds.
It was already late. The clock was hitting 10:00. Thula Baa took an oil-lamp and headed towards Mahila Baa’s house. The path was narrow and dark with bushes along the sides. There were only few houses on the way and he left them behind and came to an open area. The moonlight came peeping through the thin clouds and Thula Baa could distinguish shadows of bushes in the night. Suddenly he caught eye of something in front of him. The thing was taller than him and looked pale white and kept walking in front of him. Thula Baa thought that one of the villagers might be going to accompany Mahila Baa and called him. But the figure in front of him did not respond and kept on moving ahead. Thula Baa could not tell if the thing was a human being (one of the villagers walking drunk) or something else. Few steps ahead about half way to Mahila Baa’s house there was a big rock to the right of the path. The thing went ahead and sat on the stone resting. Thula Baa was curious and went near the thing and took the oil-lamp near to its so seemed face.
What my Thula Baa saw was beyond this world. The thing did not have a head. It had its eyes on either sides of its shoulder. Without a head, it looked like a headless man whose head was butchered flat to the shoulder. The thing looked towards my Thula Baa and spoke gibberish just like my Mahila Baa was doing since few days. That moment, Thula Baa felt cold and without losing anymore time, he dropped the oil-lamp right there at its feet and ran with his whole life towards his house. He was barely breathing and did not bother to look back at the thing. He reached his house, and called his son (my elder cousin) to slam the door. My cousin asked what it was & all he could hear was my Thula Baa murmuring “Murkata ! Murkata !!” (headless ghost) and breathing heavily. Right after the door was slammed and locked, there was a loud agony of pain, gibberish sound and children crying louder and louder as if they were all crying over the death of someone close. We could hear that sound and crying throughout the village but it certainly was not of the living ones.
Thula Baa did not have courage to go out and accompany Mahila Baa. The neighbors took turn to accompany Mahila Baa. They said that, Mahila Baa was full of tears when they got near to them right after the gibberish sound and cries faded away. We were sleepless. We were all frightened by remembering the Dhami’s words “Once possessed by the Murkata, it’s inevitable death and rarely have anybody lived after such sickness”. Thula Baa had witnessed the Murkata himself too. Everyone in the village was frightened and thinking of what would happen thereafter. Nobody had a clue about what to do next or what will happen after the night.
Most of the villagers were sleepless that night. In the morning everybody seemed to talk about the frightening night. Only my Thula Baa knew of what had happened but he was out of words to tell others. That day, just about the noon, Mahila Baa left all of us. He received his last rites and rituals. Few days later Thula Baa told his family about the night and all the villagers came to know about the incident. For many years, people avoided that path during night.
The above story is a true incident that occurred about one and a half decade ago in a remote village of Makwanpur District, Nepal. The name of the people who suffered has been replaced by the local relational names to hide their identity e.g. my eldest uncle is called #Thulo_Buwa or #Thula_Baa and the middle one among the three brothers is called #Mahilo_Buwa or #Mahila_Baa; #Dhami is the local name for a witch doctor who performs exorcism too; #Murkata is the local name for a headless ghost who is often regarded as the 'symbol of death' or the 'messenger of death'.
It is believed that if anybody encounters with the #Murkata, then it’s enevitable death. The death is not so easy. The victim has to go through intense pain, madness and self cannibalism too. So, even today people are forbidden to walk through cemetery, crematory ground or burial ground.
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