THE RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE URAONS. 131 



who is going to feed us ? ' Then God answered, " Well, I had sent the Kerketa and 

 the king-crow to forbid you to smelt iron, because my horse Ansraj Pankraj got sick and 

 could not eat. You did not listen : this is why I punished you. Now I will give you the 

 means to live. Become bhuts and your name will be Dehdebi and Dahadebi ; and go and 

 live among the Uraons, who will offer sacrifices to you." 



Before beginning the recital of these two chapters, the Sankalalas, whilst he is draw- 

 ing the lines, says, " See, O Dharmes, I break the teeth of the evil mouth that the grass- 

 hoppers -and lizards may not eat the crops, that the fields may yield a good harvest, that 



the cows and calves and goats and children of (here he pronounces the name of the 



man in whose behalf he is making the palkkansna) may not get sick but keep in good 

 health." At the end of the ceremony he repeats again what he said in the beginning, 

 specifying the different castes renowned for their evil eye. " I break the teeth of the 

 Keonts, Kumhars, Ghansis, Dhobis, Chiks, Chamars, who either on the way to the foun- 

 tain or in the village may have made use of their evil mouth, that the paddy of this man 

 may not die or be eaten by rats, mice and lizards ; that all the people of his house may 

 not get sick but keep in good health." 



Here, the Sankatalas makes his profession of faith and says, " I agree in all things 

 with the punch. I do not know anything of witchcraft. I only utter the words that have 

 been revealed by God. I do not know anything else, nor do I say anything else but 

 what God has said Himself. All these words I say from the bottom of my heart. God 

 has created the world, and we are the descendants of the Bhaya Bhayin." Having said this 

 he cooks the egg and gives it to eat to the children, but keeps the broken shells and goes 

 to the jungle to cut a branch of the Keont tree {Diospyros tomentosa) and one of the 

 Bhclwa tree {Scwicarpur anaocardinus) . He then makes an incision in them with a hatchet, 

 and inserts the broken shell of the egg and plants them in the fields. The branch of 

 Keont is in memory of the monkey, and branch of Bhclwa is to break the evil mouth and 

 destroy the evil eye ; for the oil of the Bhclwa tree is such that if even a drop of it falls 

 in anyone's eye the man becomes blind ; and a drop taken in the mouth produces sores. 



This is done also in memory of the Kerketa and king-crow, for when they went to 

 God to complain of the way they had been treated by the Asurs, he said to them, " Go 

 and live among the Uraons ; they will plant branches of Keont and Bhclwa in their fields ; 

 go and perch on these branches, and if any insects or grasshoppers come flying about the 

 place, eat them up." To prevent the evil eye from doing any harm to their crops, they 

 also put on a stick an earthen vessel painted white and black (in this way they have the 

 three colours of the lines used in the palkhansna) or the skull of an animal. The evil eye 

 will rest first on these and the crops will be safe. 



The ceremony of Ncojana is also performed to protect children from the evil eye. 

 When the child is some weeks old, they place in his hand some mustard and cotton seeds 

 mixed with turmeric, as much as his little hand can hold, and say, " Let the looks of 

 any evil-eyed man go back to himself; may his eyes burst and come out of their sockets." 

 Then they throw the seeds into the fire adding, " Let the evil eye burst like these seeds 

 in the fire." 



They have still more practices to counteract the effects of the evil eye, but this will 



