244 THE SUPERINTENDENT OP ETHNOGRAPHY, BENGAL, ON 



goes to the shrine and makes vows and offerings. The latter are dedicated by the Brah- 

 man and he recites mantras. 



To prevent the disease from entering a house the unmarried girls place a stone, which 

 represents the goddess, in a small hole at the door of the house, or in a room which is 

 kept locked, and every morning and evening, after washing it, anointing it with vermi- 

 lion, and adorning it with flowers, offer milk, cheese, and various kinds of plants and 

 fruits. Public worship is also held by a Brahman in a hut built for the purpose. The 

 goddess is represented by an earthen pot painted vermilion and wrapped in red cloth, on 

 the top of which are placed a cocoanut and a mango twig. The usual offerings are 

 made, and a Brahman recites hymns in her honour whilst a ghl-fed lamp is burned. 



Mangala is also worshipped during epidemics of smallpox in Angul. Libations of 

 gur and water are poured to her before the house, and mothers vow to give ornaments 

 or a piece of a new sari to her image, when it is next brought from Kakatpur in Cuttack. 



A curious custom is observed among the aborigines of Hazaribagh. Mango twigs 

 are put in two earthen pots full of water. The pots are covered with earthen plates con- 

 taining paddy, on which lighted oil-lamps are placed. A cane is laid beside each. The 

 Sokha worships the Devi Mara for three, seven, or nine days. At the end of this time 

 the pots are taken, together with a goat or sheep and an iron bar, to the village boun- 

 dary. The animal is killed and eaten by the Sokha and his attendants, and the skin and 

 bones are buried there, the iron bar being fixed on the boundary to mark the spot. 



There is a regular system of treatment for smallpox. The patient is confined for 

 eight days to a separate room which is washed. The ground near the bed is smeared 

 with cowdung, and water is placed there in an earthen pot. Nim twigs are placed on the 

 bed or suspended from the ceiling, and the patient is fanned with a nim branch. A Mali 

 burns incense, offers flowers and sweets, and sings hymns in honour of S'itala or Bhagvati, 

 morning and evening. Visitors must wash their feet before entering the room, and must 

 never wear coloured (especially red) clothes. The patient and all his family are strictly 

 dieted. They must abstain from fish, flesh, intoxicating liquor, oil, and ghl. The latter 

 substances may not even be applied to their hair or body, and no fish may be brought 

 into the house. No clothes may be washed, and no alms given. On the ninth day the 

 patient is bathed and made to touch oil. Cakes of raw rice and sugar are distributed 

 amongst boys and girls, and the goddess is worshipped with offerings similar to those 

 made at her temple. Consecrated food and drink offered to S'itala, rice cooked in mare's 

 milk, sugar, and ajwain (Carum copticum) are eaten, and amulets such as a S'itala 

 Kavac, or myrabolams or garlic, consecrated by an exorcist or astrologer, worn, both for 

 the prevention and cure of smallpox. A nim branch is hung at the door of the house to 

 ward off the infection, and a gki-ied lamp is kept burning. Both Hindus and Muhamma- 

 dans often blow conches at sunrise and sunset, as it is believed that S'itala will not visit 

 any place where the sound of the conch is heard. 



Cattle-disease is usually dealt with in much the same way as other epidemics, but a 

 curious custom obtains in Ranchi. A wooden cow-bell is tied to a cowherd in the west 

 of the village. He then runs beyond the village boundary with a black fowl, rice, and 

 vermilion in his hands, pursued by the boys of the village with kend sticks (Diospyros 



