Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/352

 314 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

place with their hands. They inherited this facuhy from their Fir (Mohammedan saint) some six generations back." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

"Any male born in the village of Mohiuddinpur Thirana in Shat Tahsil, or in Paiwant in Tahsil Karnal, can cure rheumatism in the knee by merely touching it."

of Sahni Jat, can cure colic simply by touching the patient's stomach."
 * Any male Jat ^ born in Diwan in Tahsil Panipat, of the family

" Any male Bairagi of the village of Pardhana in Tahsil Panipat can cure tumours by touching them with his big toe within the precincts of the shrine of Gunga Das." (Karnal.)

The limitation of place in the last item points to the source whence the wonder-working power was derived. The next is an interesting example of inheritance from a female ancestor : {satt, it need hardly be said, conferred sanctity, which involves wonder-working) : —

"The members of a family of Madaha Banias (the trading ckss) at Batala cure ringarwah (pain in the legs etc.) by a touch of the hand. This power was conferred on them by a woman of the family who became sati ; and it has become hereditary in the family." (Gurdaspur.)

Healing powers can be communicated by one individual to another not related to him : —

" In the village of Panjgirain, Tahsil Batala, a Jat has received from a Fakir power to cure wad (a kind of ulcer). He touches the ivad with his feet seven times, and the patient is cured. He takes no fee." (Gurdaspur.)

" One Ahmad Dudi of Rajanpur says that a Saniasi Fakir taught him to cure genr (a disease of the stomach) by rubbing it with his hands." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

Perhaps this last item may really imply instruction

in some kind of massage, rather than the communication

of an occult power. If so, it is the only instance of the

sort recorded in the notes. In the following case the

power is individual, not communicated or inherited : —

^ An important tribal caste of peasant proprietors, many of them Sikhs in religion.