^9 



Pamban at ihe end of June 1911 to try their skill. 

 Several were Roman Catholics, one a Hindu, and one a 

 Muhammadan. They did their best, exorcised the 

 contrary spirits that controlled the winds but to no 

 eftect, and after a reasonable delay to give the charms 

 time to act, if act they would, the crews of the canoes 

 chased away the discredited wizards with ignominy and 

 insults. Soon after their return home I obtained an 

 ola inscribed on both sides which I have every reason 

 to believe had belonged to one of the five — a Roman 

 Catholic Farawa, who practises as a native doctor. 

 Probably the mantrams inscribed upon the two surfaces 

 were the very ones used fruitlessly at Pamban. The 

 spells are in Tamil and each is prefixed by the Ganesha 

 sign (a_). Both are of Hindu origin, Hindu gods being- 

 invoked, but whereas in the one, the object is to still the 

 winds, the other is a recipe for ensuring a change in the 

 coastal current. 



The spell for the winds reads thus : — "Let neither 

 wind nor storm continue ; let a calm reign over the 

 world. Let neither force nor cajolery prevail against us 

 and by the God who made us, let nothing hinder us. 

 Let neither stones nor wrath, neither force nor arrows 

 prove hurtful to us. And let the tongue of the man who 

 speaks against us be cut into pieces ; if there be any 

 obstacles, let them be overcome. And by the Lord 



Siva that created us all, let there be nothing to prevent 



>» 

 us. 



The formula to ensure a change in the current is 

 short and most explicit ; it reads " With the help of the 

 power of Siva and his consort, with the help of his grace, 

 of his strength and of his priests, (I conjure you) Oh 

 Subramanian, Lord of Earth, Oh Hanuman, and Oh 

 Arjuna, supreme Lord, come, with a current from the 

 south towards the shore " {i.e. to the northward). 



The calls made upon Hindu gods in spells used at 

 the present day by Roman Catholic Parawas probably 

 indicates great antiquity and may mark them as survi- 

 vals from that time prior to the Portuguese arrival when, 

 according to Marco Polo, the divers of Kayal had to 

 " pay those men who charm the great fishes to prevent 

 them from injuring the divers while engaged in seeking 

 pearls under water, one-twentieth part of all that they 



