1890.] Hot Springs in South Bihar. 233 



In many of the springs the gaseous discharge was so great as to agitate 

 and spurt about the water as if it were boiling. 



Very few of the European hot springs are in much repute for 

 therapeutic purposes, few of them coming under the class of mineral 

 springs. Those which are of value are efficaceous mainly as baths, on 

 account of the amount of sulphuretted hydrogen with which they are 

 impregnated ; and none of the springs here described contain this gas 

 in large amount. Most of the above hot springs, however, are held in 

 considerable repute by the natives in the neighbourhood as potent re- 

 medies, especially for itch, ulcers and other skin affections. But a 

 most essential part of the process of cure consists in the preliminary 

 worship which must be paid to the presiding deity of the spring. 



Nearly all of these springs, as may be seen from column 14 of 

 Table I, are worshipped by the Hindu and semi-aboriginal villagers in the 

 vicinity ; for these strange outbursts of heated water, boiling up 

 cauldron-like and wreathed in clouds of vapour are regarded by them 

 as supernatural phenomena, and the especial expression of the presence 

 of a deity. The deity usually worshipped at the springs by the semi- 

 aborigines is Mata or Mai, the ' mother ' goddess — one of the forms of 

 Kali — and large melas are held in her honour. She is especially wor- 

 shipped by those suffering from itch and other skin diseases ; also by 

 the barren, both male and female, who all bathe in the water and drink 

 some of it. Goats &c. are sacrificed to her, and the rocks are daubed 

 with vermillion or red-lead and pieces of coloured rags are tied to the 

 nearest bush or tree in her worship. At Tat-loi the mela is held in 

 January and is attended by over 100,000 persons. At Nun-bil the goddess 

 is called Nun-bil devi and she is believed to especially reside in a large 

 sal tree over the spring ; her mela is held in December and also is 

 attended by about a lakh (100,000) of persons. The melas at the other 

 springs are less numerously attended. At Jhariya, the Bhuinya ghat- 

 wals (of Dravidian type, with short frizzly hair) worship with fowl 

 sacrifice and offerings of rice, the spirit of Son-mon Pande, a brahman 

 priest who is said to have died there. The more Hinduized worshippers, 

 however, believe that their favourite god Mahadeva is specially present at 

 all those hot springs, and to him they there offer worship, except at 

 Sita-kund where worship of Ram and Sita is performed. 



Curiously enough, the thermal springs of relatively low temperature, 

 which might perhaps be termed ' warm ' rather than hot springs, are 

 believed by the villagers to be hotter in the very early morning and to 

 become cooler as the day advances — this opinion is evidently founded 

 on the loose subjective sensation of the villagers, who in the cool of the 

 morning remark that the spring, being hotter than the atmosphere, 



