126 



THE LATE REV. P. DEHON" ON" 



Palkhansna. — This is the work of the Sankatalas representing the pane h. This is not 

 done on behalf of the community, but simply for the benefit of an individual and his family, 

 to counteract the effects of the evil eye and evil mouth on man, animals and fields. 

 This ceremony is performed in every house twice a year in June and at the feast of the 

 Karam, but everybody according to his devotion can have it performed as often as he 

 wishes. The sankatalas being called, the house is swept and besmeared with diluted 

 cow-dung. He then takes his seat in the middle and draws first a figure more or less in 

 the form of an egg, and then along the circumference seven small half circles to 

 represent the seven parts into which the world was divided (figs, i and 2). The big circle 

 represents the rainbow or God's granary. As they have only three words in their 

 language for the series of colours, so they use only three colours to represent the rainbow. 

 They use the red dust of the burnt mud of their hearths or choolhas, the white flour 

 of the yeast they make use of in making hanria or rice-beer and pounded charcoal in this 

 shape. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



In the centre the officiating man puts a handful of rice, on which he places an egg, 

 and having cut two twigs of the Keont tree, he joins them in the form of an angle. 

 Sitting then with his face towards the east, he draws two intersecting lines with 



