Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/359

 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab. 321

" In Peshawar near the Akhund Gate is the grave of the saint Pir Ajaib. The earth of the grave is put on a wound on a Thursday.^2 This is done for several days, until the wound is cured. After the cure the mujawirs receive seven sers of oil for burning lamps on the grave. If a man cannot learn the Koran by heart, he will succeed in doing so if he reads on the grave for three Thursdays." (Peshawar.)

It vv^ill be observed that, whereas the possessors of inherited gifts of healing charge nothing for their exercise, the ofificial guardians of sacred spots usually demand a fee, of fixed or uncertain amount.^^

In some cases the residents at the tomb or shrine seem to co-operate in the cure with the dead man: —

" At Zakhanke in Tahsil Pasrur is a shrine belonging to a saint whose disciples can cure chandri (boils) by incantations and by rubbing ashes from the tomb on the affected part." (Sialkot.)

" In the village of Samailpur, Tahsil Gurdaspur, there is an Afghan family, every member of which is endowed with the power of curing the bite of a dog, by giving the patient water from his village, and, providing the dog is not mad, the bite is healed. At the tomb of Pir Sayyid Burhan-ud-Din Bukhari, five-pice-wortli of red sugar is taken from the patient, and the ceremony of khatam'^^ is performed in the name of the Sayyid, and the sugar is distributed to children. If the patient gives cash, an earthen pitcher is brought and offered on the tomb. It is not known when the family got this power. The tomb has existed ever since the foundation of the village." (Gurdaspur.)

^^ Thursday is the eve of the Mohammedan Sabbath.

^''The following case may seem an exception, but one suspects an omission in the details given. The clod of earth is probably taken from the Fakir's tomb. Possibly, too, the possession of healing powers may depend on drinking the water.

"A Fakir named Nihal Das has bestowed upon the family of Prem Das, Jat of Jaura Singha in Tahsil Batala, the power of curing hajir (swollen glands, literally a fig, and also boils in the neck). A clod of earth is given to the patient for application to the hajir. If this is done on the Nauchandl Sunday, the gland heals; but the patient is prohibited from drinking the water of the village. A dhoti (loincloth) and five pice are taken from the patient as a fee." (Gurdaspur.)

^^This rite is unknown to me. (li.A. R.) It generally means a recitation of the Koran provided at the expense of the patient. (W. Crooke.)