Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/361

 Occult Powers of Healing in the Pmijab. 323

may be doubted whether these legendary Fakirs, who are said to have given power to the wells, are not in reality early devotees of the wells in question, whose memory lingers at the places they themselves worshipped, and beside which they were frequently buried. If this be so, then in the case of the well cures we have the mana of place existing in se, and independently of the mana of persons.^^

The cults alluded to in the next item are not merely local : —

"In Maheshi, Tahsil Jagadhri, is a temple of Siva, and in Bhut Majra in the same TahsiI there is a grove of trees called the bani (copse) of Guga Pir. Pearsons bitten by snakes are cured by gomg to these places. The temple at Maheshi has a wide reputation in this respect." (Ambala.)

We have seen that, whatever combination of elements, —person, place, time, and ceremony,— may enter into a cure, one or other of two is always present, namely the communication of the " virtue" or majia either of a person or of a fountain, and that either of these two may stand alone, unconditioned by the other three. There is yet a third form of cure which may be found by itself and unassisted by other conditions, namely the charm-formula, sooken or written. The question is, does the virtue of this cure reside in the words themselves, or in the ina^ia of the ongmal speaker, lingering in them as the scent of rose- leaves lingers in d. pot-pourri ]2.x }

First, we will note what seems to be an instance of the ongmal speaker of the charm. The power is spoken of as havmg been inherited, but it is the power of narrating a story, not the secret of a word-formula.

"A Julaha (weaver) of Jullundur city can cure 'splitting of one side of the head' by reciting a story in the patient's ear. I he patient cannot hear the story distinctly, but the headache disappears. The Julaha claims to have inherited this power."

^^The parallel with the Celtic local saints will strike everyone.