196 Notes on Moor crofts Travels in Ladakh, [No. 147. 



from the 1st to the 15th of the Hindoo month Magh, they are suppos- 

 ed to be absent in the upper sky, soliciting these divinities to confirm 

 or to grant blessings. The people also talk of demons of power greater 

 than the deotas. This system seems to correspond with the present 

 Shamanism of Arctic Asia. 



Deotas can reward and punish in this world, but not in the next, 

 or more correctly during this life only ; for in Upper Kunawar at least, 

 they have borrowed the Buddhistic transmigration of souls. 



Deotas are propitiated by sacrifices, and it is usual for the villagers 

 collectively, to offer a goat or a sheep when the crops appear above 

 ground. When the grain is cut, each house or family makes a similar 

 offering. In some places, an offering is also made at this season of 

 rejoicing on account of the birth, then or previously, of a male child. 

 Offerings are made at any time by individuals to avert a particular 

 evil, or procure a special blessing. The deotas themselves also oc- 

 casionally desire that a sacrifice may be made through them to the 

 greater gods, to propitiate or appease these higher powers. 



The will of a deota is sought and declared by his priest or minister. 

 Fortunate days, as for marriages, are similarly ascertained ; and gene- 

 rally, people endeavour to learn whether they will be fortunate or not, 

 by resorting to the priest at the temple, and receiving from him a few 

 grains of wheat or barley. An odd number implies good fortune, an 

 even one, the reverse. 



The priest may be of any tribe of the country. In Chini in Kuna- 

 war, the present minister is a chumar or out-caste. The will of th( 

 deota in the selection of his priest is generally ascertained as follows : 

 On a particular day, the period of one of the great Hindoo festivals is 

 preferred, the majority of the villagers bathe, and putting some water 

 only in the drinking cup of the deota, they invoke him in his temple 

 by words and gestures. He who is chosen, is miraculously rapt, or 

 inspired by the god ; and taking up the cup he is able to distribute 

 grain from it, (although it contained nothing but water.) The deota 

 may also declare his pleasure in this matter, by imbuing one of his 

 votaries with the power of thrusting unharmed and unmarked, an 

 iron rod through some portion of his flesh. It is the custom in one 

 village I know of to ask the deota from time to time after the death 

 of his priest, whether he wishes a successor to be appointed. The 



