Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/354

 3 1 6 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab,

" A family of Aggarwal Banias * of the Gol goi or section, two of whose members reside at Batala in the Gurdaspur district and two in Amritsar, have the inherited gift, said to have been con- ferred on their ancestors by a Fakir, of curing swellings of the knees and jaws. The material used is the ashes of burnt cowdung {arnas). These are charmed with the breath of the curer and then rubbed copiously on the affected part. This power, however, is only possessed by the males of the family." (Lahore.)

" Members of the family of Govind Mahajan of Ladwi in Tahsil Thanesar possess the power of curing enlarged glands (bodh, kachhrdlt, or kanpera), by blowing cowdung ashes on the patient and then rubbing them in." (Karnal.)

"The Jagu-pota Nais (barbers) have the power of curing lict {herpes or ringworm) by rubbing ashes on the patient on two or three days." (Jullundur.)

Other methods of cure may perhaps be best described as aggravated forms of healing by touch : —

" Chuk, a pain in the loins (lumbago ?), is cured by Sadanas (Aroras) of Jampur, who take hold of the patient by his loincloth and push him forward thrice; by the Manjotha Jats of Jampur, who put a clod of earth on the part which pains, and rub it with a wooden pestle, the pain disappearing after this process has been repeated thrice ; by the members of the family of Remal Mai, a Dhingra Arora of Rajanpur, who only apply a part of their clothing to the part affected and give the patient a push, thrice ; or, if all the members of the family are absent, the patient is cured by rubbing his back against the wall of a Dhingra's shop. The Dua Aroras 2 have a power similar to the latter." (Dera Ghazi Klian.)

" Some Kapur Khatris of Jullundur city can cure kandd (a swelling below the ears) by drawing lines on the part affected, in the name of their Guril (religious teacher). This is done for three days." (Possibly these are cabalistic symbols.)

"A family in Khan Khasa in Tahsil Raya have an inherited power of curing hydrophobia by making the mark of a cross on the patient's hand with some hard substance which bruises the skin, a condition being that no other remedy is resorted to within twenty-four hours." (Sialkot.)

^Banias are an influential mercantile caste of the East Panjab.