Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/370

 332 Occult Powers of Healing in the Panjab.

or by diverting the hail into a pond or on to waste land. This is done by incantations.

"On the other hand, oil which has been bewitched by in- cantations on the Ddw&li night (or feast of lamps) will, if rubbed on the pegs to which an enemy's cattle are tethered, cause them to pine away and die." (Sialkot.)

We have wandered here from curative to destructive formulas, from charms to spells. The barrier between them is of the slightest ; both are the expression of power, for good or for evil. We may return to our proper subject with the following charm for headache : —

Unar Jat, of Jampur, are said to cure headache of a particular kind, which begins at sunrise and lasts for about two hours every morning, by placing a sieve on the patient's head, sprinkling water and reciting the following darHd or benediction, and a kalam or prayer :
 * Hafiz Muhammad, a Kachhela Jat, and Mullah Ramzan, an

Alia hum-ma sulk ata Muhammadin wa ata die Muhammad bdrik wa sallam, i.e. " Oh, Allah, give benediction to Ali Mohammed (or Ah and others) descendants of Mohammed : make them blessed and safe."

"This is a quotation from the Hadis. The kaldm is as follows : Dam Datn Khudd, Dam Dam Pir Ustdd, Alt-haydt hillah, i.«. Breath of God and Breath of my Fir Ustdd (spiritual adviser and teacher), I am devoted (to them)." (Jampur.)

The water dropping through the sieve is no doubt imitative rain, and a touch of sympathetic magic seems also to occur in the next example, in which the nail perhaps represents the tooth. A similar cure is well known in Europe : —

"Haidar Shah Sayyid of Jampur is said to cure toothache by repeating the words samd liitt, and making the patient thrust a nail into a tree, fixing the period by which the toothache is to disappear, but it is said to reappear after the period fixed by him." (Dera Ghazi Khan.)

this District) : The words yd shama^oh are written on a bit of
 * ' The following is the charm against toothache (customary in