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114
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1899.
A
souls of the dead have helped the living may be gathered from the following: "Manjé vakhthalá álman úbim rélik, in the time of my need the souls stood (helped, or interceded for, me). person, in asking a favour, say to educate a poor orphan, says: "Sikwa, sikwá pôrála, tiúché bapascham álm túmálá abam rél, Educate, educate the boy, his father's soul will stand for you (will obtain for you grace or favours)."
There is a general belief that the kumbhárs or potters do not eat the fish called kúpa, because they say the kúpa is their dai or gotri, that is, belonging to their sect. How they came to identify the kapá as belonging to their gôtra I cannot ascertain."
Cure of Spirit-caused Diseases.
Diseases are sometimes believed to be caused by spirits. The people ascribe some sicknesses to the agency of bhuts or evil spirits, and exorcists, Hindu or Musalmân, are resorted to to rid themselves of the ills. The diseases attributed to evil spirits or bhuts are fainting, mania, small-pox, etc. Perhaps, sneezing and yawning, too, are attributed to spirits, for when a child sneezes, the mother of the child or any one at hand says: "Jitush." I cannot ascertain the meaning of this word. Can it be a corruption of Jesus? So, some persons, when they yawn, make the sign of the cross with their right thumb before their mouths, twice or thrice, or as many times as possible, while the yawning lasts.
I remember once, when cholera was raging in the Mâhârwâdâ (where Mâbârs live almost every village in Salsette has one) attached to the village of Mallâ, in Bandra, seeing a Christian cultivator (aged about 55, an illiterate person), after drinking some liquor, take a big stick in hand and beat well the sides and roof of a hut, belonging to a Mâhâr, in which a case of cholera had occurred, making plenty of noise. He evidently believed that the epidemic was caused by an evil spirit, and that what he was doing would frighten away the spirit, and thus free the place from the dreaded sickness.
Water. Water drives off the spirit of thirst, it refreshes the fainting, and it restores life to those in a swoon. When a child gets into a rage, and keeps crying for a long time, in spite of all coaxing and soothing words and threats of punishment, it is called gánḍlánchi rag (rage caused by worms). To cure this, water is dashed on the eyes and face of the child. When a person, in whose house is a pregnant woman, goes to a funeral, on his return he must bathe before entering the house; he must also not touch the pregnant woman before he has washed himself. New-born infants are washed. The dead are also washed before being clothed for burial. If a person treads or steps over a ground on which an animal, a dog, or a cat, or a horse, or a snake, etc., has been wallowing, he is affected with an illness called réns, the symptoms of which are vomiting and looseness with great griping about the pit of the stomach. It is supposed that no medicine can cure this malady; indeed, the sufferer suffers more by taking any medicine. To cure this, among other things, water is waved over the prostrate body of the patient, about seven times, and the patient recovers.
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Metals. Metals have great power over spirits, iron in particular. In Salsette there is a spirit known as gird, who plays much mischief with a solitary traveller specially one under the influence of liquor, or one who is a coward, in the night, leading him astray; in many cases carrying the victin many miles away from the place of attack and lowering him in an empty well, or digging a pit in the sea and burying the man up to his neck, leaving him to extricate himself the best way he can from that position or to die. A girá, however, dare not touch a person who has on him anything made of iron or steel, particularly a knife or nail, of which the gird is in great fear. A gird will never meddle with a woman, especially a married woman, for he is afraid of her bangles. It is believed that, if any one can manage to drive a nail in the gird's head, he (the gird) again becomes a man. It is also believed that a girá, metamorphosed into a man, will do any work, like an obedient servant, so long as he remains as such. Horse-shoe nails are driven into the threshold to prevent spirits from entering the house. In cases of poisoning, copper coins are boiled in water, and the water is given the patient to drink, to make him vomit the poison. At the time of making ôre, if bubbles appear on the oil while being boiled,
[This should interest the enquirers into totemism.-ED.]
