209 
1883.] G. Singh— Superstitions connected with child birth. 
But the mother must not stain the palms of her hands or feet with the 
colour of the mahindi or hinna plant ( Lnwsonia inermis ) and must not 
wear cloth coloured with kusumbha dye, until the ancestors are worshipped 
and a feast given to the kinsmen. On this occasion dhiyanls or the 
girls horn in the tribe must also be fed, paid and reverenced. There is 
no limit of time as to when this grand feast is to be given. 
Thenceforth nothing is to be feared except that dreadful goddess 
“ small-pox.” She must be periodically worshipped. Of the mode of 
her worship I will give a separate description ; meanwhile suffice it to say 
that on her days and the days of her bir or follower, Tuesday and Satur¬ 
day, the boy should not have a bath. 
There is one other subject which I think must not remain altogether 
unnoticed. It is the influence of the evil eye, and what should be done 
to prevent the mischief caused thereby. Mothers naturally watch their 
sons with great anxiety. If at any time the baby refuses to take his 
nourishment, the first thought of the mother is, that he is under the in¬ 
fluence of the evil eye. But to be sure whether this is so, she takes on a 
Saturday or Sunday seven red peppers, touches the person of the young 
one seven times with them, and without speaking to any one throws them 
in the fire. If they give out any odour whilst they burn, the baby is safe 
from the evil eye, but if no odour comes when the peppers burn, then it cannot 
he doubted that the young one has been looked at by some evil eye. If 
the mother, whilst touching him with the peppers, talks to any one, the 
charm is broken and must be done again. There is also one other method 
of finding this out, viz., throwing dough wrapped round by cotton threadj 
after touching the child seven times with it, into the fire. If it burns without 
the threads being burnt, the boy is under the influence of the evil eye, but if 
the threads burn first, then the evil eye is not to be feared. This mode of 
ascertaining the evil eye is not so generally adopted as the one mentioned 
first. When it is thus found out that it is the evil eye which ails the 
baby, they then think out who it must be, whose eye fell on the child. 
Surely it can be no other than the person who stared at the child longest 
and who praised him most. Hence it is the rule with the friendly visitors 
not to praise the child much. If it be done so by any one, the mother 
or other friend of the baby takes a little earth in her hand and throws 
it across the child. Horse owners and dealers are also seen doing this, 
after some new comer has inspected the horse. When the person whose 
evil eye fell on the baby comes again, the child is hidden from his eye, 
and some earth from under the footsteps of the offending person is quietly 
taken and thrown in the fire. It may be observed that the native method is 
safer than the English which requires spilling of blood to remove the evil (see 
the Bev. A. Jessopp’s Account of Superstition in Arcady in the Nineteenth 
