1 Cures of disease in cattle.
2 257
3 fever is cured by giving plenty of milk, If it is a mihtar, make the
4 patient sweep the floor; if ( za-nincldr, let him plough; and so on. If the
5 fever spirit be a thief, go at midnight to the graveyard and get a clod of
6 earth, put it to sleep with the patient and next morning bung it on a
7 kitcar tree. This is an infallible remedy as it hangs the fever- thief. This
8 caste of fever comes stealthily by night But if the night-fever be not
9 of this caste, a good plan is to put the dirty spoon out of the cooking-pot
10 on the patient's pillow, as that will disgust him, so that he will not sleep
11 with the patient. Among Muhammadans a light may be lit and taken
12 to the mosque at night by the patient who pretends to be looking for
13 something until an inquisitive passer-by asks what he is looking for.
14 Then the sufferer should throw down the lamp and reply : ‘find it your¬
15 self.’ The fever will then leave the patient and go to the passer-by.1
16 A stye can be got rid of in a very similar way. Go at nightfall and
17 knock at a neighbour’s door. At the cry, ‘ Who is there ? ’ reply that you
18 have given and they have taken the disorder. When the inmates rush
19 out to abuse you, you must escape their pursuit.2
20 Vaccination is also objected to by somo Muhamtnadans because it
21 is believed that the Imam Mahdi will be born with milk in his veinB,
22 and vaccination would reveal this child by puncturing its arm.3
23 The causes and cures of disease in animals differ only in detail and
24 not in principle from those of disease in men. In the Dehli District
25 branding Chamars on the back has been resorted to as a means to extir¬
26 pate cattle-disease. The victim appears to be entitled to a fee. He must
27 tarn his face away from the village and not look back. This should be »
28 done on a Saturday.4 It may also be got rid of by volley firing near the
29 animals affected.6
30 Transference of cattle-disease is effected by a rite called rord ddlnd
31 or nikdlnd, rord being the articles carried in procession to the boundary
32 of the infected village and thrown into the confines of the one adjacent
33 to it. In one case under a jogi’s advice they consisted of a buffalo's
34 skull, a small lamb or pig (carried by a sweeper), vessels of butter and
35 milk, fire in a pan, wisps of grass, an.t sticks- of sir as (acacia speeiosa ).®
36 This must be done on a Sunday and on that day and the preceding
37 Saturday no field work must be done, grass cut, corn ground, food cooked
38 or fire lighted. The village to which the murrain is transferred must
39 lie to the east of that which transfers it A Brahman should be present
40 and a gun fired off three times.7 A simpler method is to get a faqtr to
41 write a charm on a wooden label, hang inside a pot like the clapper of
42 a bell and hang it over the village gate. It will ring when the wind
43 blows and stay the disease.8
44 1 Mrs. ¥. A. Steel in P. N. Q„ I, §*352.
45 3 P. N. Q.. II, 774.
46 * lb., II, § 989, and I, § 1012.
47 1 lb; I, § 227, 1, § 698.
48 * Ib,t I, § 228.
49 * P. N. Q-, f, j 760. Saturday and
50 Sunday are in somo way sacred to horned
51 cattle, for cattle, leather and ghi must not
52 be bought or sold on those (Jays. And all
53 cattle dying on those days are buried, not
54 eaten by the village menials ; ib. I, § 1015.
55 7 lbA> I, § 632. A similar rite is
56 performed in cases of cholera epidemic ; ib>,
57 IX, * 26.