192 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1905. 
answer to his sacrifice. To his parents he is in very truth a Samuel 
— asked of God.” 
69. Terrors of the Night.—In common with all primitive 
peoples, the villagers of this Tehsil are greatly scared by the dark 
night. It is not the dread which civilized persons have of stepping 
on a snake or ascorpion, but the darkness to them is frequented by 
evil spirit and malign influences. Specially after someone has died 
is this fear apparent. It is completely removed during the moon- 
light nights and most apparent during the dark wet nights in the 
rains. Ona dark night it is considered unwise to name a person 
recently deceased; a snake also should not be mentioned. By 
naming the snake or the deceased they will come near. “‘ Speak 
of an angel,” as the saying goes. 
70. Settling Quarrels.—The Rauts or herdsmen havea festival 
in September or October, which Lam sure will repay investigation 
by an expert. I wish to mention one item in this connection. Tor 
about a month the Rauts go around dressed up with strings of 
shells (kowries) with leather or metallic shields and lathies or 
wooden swords in the hand. At this time they have what is 
called maiar jagna. Jagna means to awake, but what Matar 
means I cannot say. The Rauts get together on the site where they 
usually tie the cattle during the heat of the day, and at this place 
they have a great feast anda merry time. They are all dressed 
up as described above, and I am told they eat with their shoes on 
and their dathies in their hands. After this feast they go forth to 
settle any quarrel which may have arisen with neighbouring 
Rauts during the past year. The quarrel is settled by the use of 
lathies and not by words, one party throws out the challenge by 
shouting out words of abuse, the others reply and they engage in 
a hand-to-hand fight till the people in one party are defeated and 
take to their heels. The people tell me that these fights still take 
place, but I have had no positive evidence of this being the case. 
71. Scorpion Stings, Immunity from.—l know for a fact that 
there are persons on the Tahsil, whoare immune to the sting of 
the scorpion. A man of my acquaintance will deliberately take 
up a scorpion holding it by the tail. This is not merely done by 
courage due to dexterity, for I once saw the scorpion strike him and 
the only discomfort he experienced was a pain as though the part 
had been burnt or rubbed with chillies. There isa belief that dark 
skinned persons are more susceptible to the poison, for they suffer 
more intensely. It has also been stated that if a woman is stung 
by a scorpion during pregnancy, her offspring will be immune to 
the scorpion poison. ‘There are certain persons who have a re- 
putation for removing the pain consequent on the sting of a scor- 
pion, and they go through various mesmeric passes over the part 
stung; and if the distressed portion be the arm, they profess to 
gradually bring down the pain to the fingers from which extremity 
the pain is eliminated. 
72. Concerning a Mushroom.—There is a dark-coloured 
rather high-growing mushroom found in the open fields, which is 
known as Suri gae ki dhetti, v.e., the teats of the Suri (wild) cow. 
