Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/205

 Collectanea. 189

honour of Hanuman, and entertains them to dinner after it is over. While this ritual is being performed the worshipper must keep pure and continent ; he sleeps on the ground, and eats only once in the twenty-four hours food which he cooks with his own hands ; and he must be careful that no stranger see him doing so.

A Charm to avert Cattle Disease. — The following is one of the most popular charms employed in Northern India when cattle disease is prevalent. It is technically known as the Ajay- pdl Jantra, i.e. "the charm of the Invincible Protector." This is one of the titles of Vishnu, but it is also applied to the Earth- god, Bhilmiya, with whom in many places Vishnu is identified. In this form he is specially concerned with the protection of cattle and crops. Along with Ajay-pal, Mari Mata, the goddess of death, who presides over cholera, is also often invoked. The charm is made in the following way. A rope is twisted of clean straw ; and at even distances, about every two feet or so, a chip of wood is twisted into the strands. Properlj-, these wooden chips should be five in number ; two of which are supposed to represent respectively a mace and a bludgeon, and the other three, three pairs of sandals — those of the god, goddess, and their attendant. In the centre of the rope is suspended an earthen platter, inside which an incantation is inscribed with charcoal, and beside it is hung a bag contnining seven kinds of grain. These are supposed to represent all kinds of produce grovn by the performer of the charm.

This rope is then suspended on two poles at the entrance of the village through which the cattle are driven to and from pas- ture. Occasionally, when the plague is very severe, the rope is let down when the cattle come home in the evening, and the earthen vessel is made to touch the back of the bull which is the leader of the herd. Sunday and Tuesday are days considered specially lucky for performing this charm.

I had one of these charms for some time, and the incantation inside the saucer, being interpreted, ran thus : " O Lord of the Earth on which this cattle-pen stands, protect the cattle from death and disease ! I know of none, save thee, who can deliver them."