Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/378

274 at liberty to exercise his own discretion in determining the omen. Similarly in a case of haemoptysis, dysentery or any morbid discharge from the urethra (Prameha), the first interview between a messenger and a physician near a reservoir of water is an omen of happy augury, A learned physician shall thus determine the ominous character of a messenger in connection with other diseases as well.

Messengers of happy augury:—A fair and handsome messenger, who is clad in clean and white garments, and belongs to the same caste or spiritual clan (Svagotraj as the patient himself, forebodes the successful termination of the disease (for which the medical aid is needed). A messenger, calling on a physician either on foot or in a bullock cart, and who is contented, intelligent, capable of acting according to the rules of decorum, time and circumstances, and is independent and original in his thoughts and ideas, and carries ornaments, and other auspicious articles about his person, is alone capable of rendering the best services in connection with the calling in of a physician. A messenger, for the first time, interviewing a physician, when the latter is complacently seated with his face towards the east, and on a clean and even ground, should be regarded as a messenger of happy augury.

Raw meat, a pitcher full of water, an umbrella, a Bramhana, an elephant, a cow, an ox and an article