Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/360

 32 2 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

There is a touch of sympathetic magic about the next two cases. The old teacher's tree restores diseased brains ; the innocent girl's white thread is an antidote to diabolical agency.

"In the village of Sabowari is the shrine of Wadda Mian, called Wadda Mian ka Dars. The saint opened a school, and taught the Koran to everyone, even if deaf, blind, etc. ; for years he used to sit under the wan tree {Salvadora oleoides) which now hangs over his grave. A patient suffering from brain disease gets cured by eating a few leaves of this tree. No fee is charged." (Lahore.)

"In Kasur is the grave of one Ahmad Bakhsh, darwesh, to whom was given the power of curing aseb (shadow of a devil or j inn). The micjawir keeps a small quantity of white kankar (nodules of lime) on the grave, and whoever goes there is given a bit of the kankar, which he ties with a cotton thread, prepared by a young unmarried girl, round the neck of the sick person, who is at once cured." (Lahore.)

The next point to be observed is that healing wells, though often found in connection with graves, are not necessarily associated with them ; —

" In the Gumti Bazar at Lahore, a Brahman has a well the water of which is said to have been enchanted by a Fakir. Kanperd (swelling near the ear) is cured by taking mud from the chaubachcha (reservoir) of the well and by paying five pice to the Brahman." (Lahore.)

" In Peshawar there is a well in the dharms&la (resthouse, or hospice for pilgrims) of Baba Jagan Shah. Lepers, and those suffering from saya or aseb, are cured by bathing in the chaubachcha on a Sunday or saftkrdnt (the first day of the month)."

"At Kandrali, in Tahsil Jhajjar, is a tank which was blessed by a Fakir, and by bathing in it the bite of a dog or jackal is cured. It is also sufficient to rub the dust of the tank on the body. Sugar should also be distributed to children."

"At Anwal in the same Tahsil, and at Chara in Tahsil Sampla, are tanks blessed by Fakirs, by bathing in which jaundice is cured." (Rohtak.)

Considering the reverence paid to water in the East, — the river gods, the worship of the Ganges, and the like,— rit