Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/364

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26 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

prohibited from eating certain things, and given a purgative." (Gujrat.)^^

" The Bukhari Sayyids of a village near Jalalpur Bharwala, in Tahsil Shuja'abad, claim to cure hydrophobia if the patient presents himself within three days of being bitten. They make small balls of flour and place them in his hands, reciting charms meanwhile. As the charms are read, hairs come out of the pills of flour. These are believed to be the hairs of the mad dog, and in a few days the patient recovers." ^o (Multan.)

" Bakshan Shah Sayyid of Dera Ghazi Khan city is said to cure hydrophobia by sprinkling charmed water over a patient's body, and making him pass under his legs without looking backwards." ^i (Apparently country salt, over which the Mohammedan kalima has been recited, is also used. H. A. R.)

"Abdul Hakim Shah Sayyid of Jampur gives water, (over which a verse from the Koran may have been read, though this is not essential), to a patient sufi'ering from hydrophobia to drink, and makes him pass under his leg. This is said to cure the hydrophobia. He is also said to cure gej'ir (indigestion) by laying his sword on the patient's belly and placing his hands on the sword." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

(In the last case, the personality of the healer is evidently the source of the mafia, and the charm is only used to reinforce it.)

by certain men who repeat a charm and blow on the leaf of a dharek ^^ tree, with which the wound is then gently wiped. This is done several times. Another method is to tie knots in a woollen thread between each repetition of a charm, and then tie the thread above the wound. Or the sore is simply touched after repeating a charm." (Jhelum.)
 * In the Jhelum District, where guinea-worm is rife, it is cured

19 Cf. ante, p. 86. ^o cf_ kiltie, p. 83, (Gurgaon).

^' Cf. ante, p. 86. This curious ceremony reminds us of the "creeping cures " of Europe, — the briar rooted at both ends, the holed stone, the cleft ash, and so forth. All are probably a symbolic "re-birth," completing the cure.

''^ Melia Azadarachta. Its leaves and fruit are officinal, and its seeds, which are considered hot, are given in rheumatism.