Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/355

 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 3 1 7

"The Dhandi Jats of Manakwal have the power of curing a child under ten years of age, of any caste or creed, which has boils or eruptions on its body, by exorcising it with a branch of the ^/^ shrub ^" (Ludhiana.)

In the last case the virtue of the healer seems to be reinforced by the virtue of the dk shrub, which we shall meet with again. The next two examples involve some rough surgery, but still it is not the means used which effects the cure, but the person who " has the power " of applying them : —

"The family of Gurdit Singh, zaildar (principal headman) of Nagar, Tahsil Phillaur, has the inherited power of curing rheuma- tism. They apply a lancet to the leg according to the season, or to the joint where the phlegm is much congested." (Jullundur.)

"The Lohars (village smiths, low caste) of Aulain in Tahsil Garhshankar have the inherited power of curing disease of the urethra {ndl utar jatd hai) by boring the patient's ear." (Hoshiarpur.)

In the following cases the power of the healer is qualified or assisted by some condition of time, place, or ceremony, by a food tabu, by banishment from the village, or by the like :—

"The descendants of one Jewan Shah, Fakh- of Kirto Pindori, a village in Tahsil Raya, are called Bodals.^ They have the power of curing hydrophobia by reciting incantations over gur (raw sugar), which is given to the patient, who must eschew the use of some one kind of food for life." (Sialkot.)

"The descendants of one Bhargar, a Gujar^ of Miana Chah, are believed to have the power of curing sciatica. Bhargar is said

^ The dk, {akk in Panjabi), or Calotropis gigantea is a plant, or rather a small bush, which produces fleshy green beans. Ak juice {viaddr) is yielded by its beans, and resenibles milk when fresh drawn, but soon congeals and forms a kind of resin. It is used to cause infanticide, but, though poisonous, is also used externally as a rubifacient in Indian medicine. The stalk and root of the dk are used medicinally when powdered. Very little is known of the properties or effects of the various parts of the plant, or the post-tnoriem symptoms caused by it.

^ ^^rfa/ literally means "simple," or even "imbecile."

''A cattle-keeping tribe.