Vol. I, No. 8.] The People of Mungeli Tahsil. 199 
[N. S.] 
garden, as the mata had asked for this fruit. If the goddess should 
demand a hen, the hen will be purchased and tied near the bed of the 
patient. It is said that a hen with reversed feathers is the one 
most appreciated. During mall-pox epidemic I have known 
poultry with reversed feathers to sell at an exorbitant price. Some- 
times a goat is tied in the house of the patient and daintily fed in 
the name of the goddess, with a promise that it will be slaughtered 
in the event of the patient’s recovery. Every evening in each 
house in which there is as ll-pox patient, music is heard and 
also employed, more especially the drum. The friends of the patient 
will sit up all night. If the patient is in distress, nothing is 
done to alleviate the suffering ; but the friends perplex themselves 
in trying to find ont what they have done to annoy the goddess or 
what they have omitted to do which will please her. One evening 
I questioned a young man passing my gate as to where he was 
ing. He replied he was going to join his friends who were to 
h 
‘cat should come near the house at night and annoy the goddess.” 
I 
years.” On seeing my perplexity he explained that they say 
upon seven women seated by fires on the roadside. He addressed 
hem as “ friends ” and asked them for fire to light his birhi (pipe). 
i no 
disease in Mungeli and its sudden appearance in Nawagarh just at 
that time. I have been told that when the disease first appears on 
bathed with 
People have the ceremony of “ Vida karo,” that is, “sending away 
Pg goddess, as some visi 
cod is prepared, and the family party all 
mus 
