3 1 8 Occ^ilt Powers of Healing m the Panjab.
to have been a saint, and there is a beri tree in the courtyard round his tomb. Persons suffering from any pain are told to rub the part affected against this tree, and the gaddi-nashin (incum- bent) of the shrine, who must be a descendant of Bhargar, recites the verse of the Koran Al-hamd-ul-illdh etc., and touches the part. This is repeated on three successive Sundays." (Gujrat.)
"At the village of Shah pur, Jhanjora, Tahsil Shakargarh, there is a Lalotra Rajput^ named Kako, who has the power of curing the disease of athra.^ The woman or child suffering from the disease comes to him on a Sunday or Tuesday in the month of Chet or Katak on a moonlight night. (These Sundays or Tuesdays are called chand?ia.) Kako rubs dried cowdung on the third right rib, at the point distant 2)4 ribs from one side, and presses a piece of cotton besmeared with the milky juice of the dk plant on it, so that the part rubbed may be moistened ; but care is taken that the dk juice falls only on the part rubbed. The charm is read before or after the process. The woman or child is then directed to pour dk juice on the place, or to get some one else to do so, on the following day, and this is done accordingly. When the place gets blistered by the dk juice, the patient applies spittle for twenty-one days, after which the disease is cured. Kako says that this power was conferred on his family by a sadhii (saint or ascetic) some nine generations ago. No fee is paid, and, if any one of his own will offers gram, gur, or pice, these are distributed among the poor or the children present on the occasion. A child who continues thin may be cured in twenty-one days by the same process. No other member of the Lalotra caste can cure these diseases." (Gurdaspur.)
"In the village of Vila Bijjii, Tahsil Batala, the shareholders of patti^^ Vila, who are Jats of the Bhindar got, received from a Fakir the power of curing jaundice. Both the calves of the
^ High-caste Aryan claiming to represent the ancient Kshatriya or Warrior caste.
- Athrd is said to be a disease which attacks children in the eighth day,
month, or year of their age. Obviously this is a folk-etymology from dfh (eight). But I have seen somewhere atra (literally, bead) described as a disease.
'"A subdivision of the village.
