cramp, "Cramp! be thou faultless, as Our Lady was when she bore Jesus."

It is needless to say that the same theory flourishes in rural India. Thus, in Râjputâna,' sickness is popularly attributed to Khor, or the agency of the offended spirits of deceased relations, and for treatment they call in a "cunning man," who propitiates the Khor by offering sweetmeats, milk, and similar things, and gives burnt ash and black pepper sanctified by charms to the patient. The Mahadeo Kolis of Ahmadnagar believe that every malady or disease that seizes man, woman, child, or cattle is caused either by an evil spirit or by an angry god. The Bijapur Vaddars have a yearly feast to their ancestors to prevent the dead bringing sickness into the house."

Further east in North Bhutân all diseases are supposed to be due to possession, and the only treatment is by the use of exorcisms. Among the Gâros, when a man sickens the priest asks which god has done it. The Kukis and Khândhs believe that all sickness is caused by a god or by an offended ancestor.3

So among the jungle tribes of Mirzapur, the Korwas believe that all disease is caused by the displeasure of the Deohâr, or the collective village godlings. These deities sometimes become displeased for no apparent reason, sometimes because their accustomed worship is neglected, and sometimes through the malignity of some witch. The special diseases which are attributed to the displeasure of these godlings are fever, diarrhoea and cough. If small-pox comes of its own accord in the ordinary form, it is harmless, but a more dangerous variety is attributed to the anger of the local deities. Cholera and fever are regarded as generally the work of some special Bhût or angry ghost. The Kharwars believe that disease is due to the Baiga not having paid proper attention to Râja Chandol and the other tutelary godlings of the village. The Pankas think that 1 "Gazetteer," i. 175.

2 "Bombay Gazetteer," xvii. 200; xxiii. 12; Campbell, "Notes, 12 sqq.

Dalton, "Descriptive Ethnology,' 97, 60, 46.

disease comes in various ways-sometimes through ghosts or witches, sometimes because the godlings and deceased ancestors were not suitably propitiated. All these people believe that in the blazing days of the Indian summer the goddess Devî flies through the air and strikes any child which wears a red garment. The result is the symptoms which less imaginative people call sunstroke. Instances of similar beliefs drawn from the superstitions of the lower races all over the country might be almost indefinitely extended. Even in our own prayers for the sick we pray the Father "to renew whatsoever has been decayed by the fraud and malice of the Devil, or by the carnal will and frailness" of the patient.

Leprosy is a disease which is specially regarded as a punishment for sin, and a Hindu affected by this disease remains an outcast until he can afford to undertake a purificatory ceremony. Even lesser ailments are often attributed to the wrath of some offended god or saint. Thus, in Satâra, the King Sateswar asked the saint Sumitra for water. The sage was wrapped in contemplation, and did not answer him. So the angry monarch took some lice from the ground and threw them at the saint, who cursed the King with vermin all over his body. He endured the affliction for twelve years, until he was cured by ablution at the sacred fountain of Devrâshta.1 As we shall see, the

Bengâlis have a special deity who rules the itch.

From ideas of this kind the next stage is the actual impersonation of the deity who brings disease, and hence the troop of disease godlings which are worshipped all over India, and to whose propitiation much of the thoughts of the peasant are devoted.

SÎTALÂ, THE GODDESS OF SMALL-POX.

Of these deities the most familiar is Sîtalâ, "she that loves the cool," so called euphemistically in consequence of the fever which accompanies small-pox, the chief infant

1 "Bombay Gazetteer," xix. 465.

plague of India, which is under her control. Sîtalâ has other euphemistic names. She is called Mâtâ, "the Mother " par excellence; Jag Rânî, "the queen of the world;" Phapholewâlî, "she of the vesicle; " Kalejewâlî, "she who attacks the liver," which is to the rustic the seat of all disease. Some call her Mâhâ Mâî, "the great Mother." These euphemistic titles for the deities of terror are common to all the mythologies. The Greeks of old called the awful Erinyes, the Eumenides, "the well-meaning." So the modern Greeks picture the small-pox as a woman, the enemy of children, and call her Sunchoremene, “indulgent," or "exorable," and Eulogia, "one to be praised or blessed;" and the Celts call the fairies "the men of peace" and "the good people," or "good neighbours."1

In her original form as a village goddess she has seldom a special priest or a regular temple. A few fetish stones, tended by some low-class menial, constitute her shrine. As she comes to be promoted into some form of Kâlî or Devî, she is provided with an orthodox shrine. She receives little or no respect from men, but women and children attend her service in large numbers on "Sîtalâ's seventh," Sîtalâ Kî Saptamî, which is her feast day. In Bengal she is worshipped on a piece of ground marked out and smeared with cow-dung. A fire being lighted, and butter and spirits thrown upon it, the worshipper makes obeisance, bowing his forehead to the ground and muttering incantations. A hog is then sacrificed, and the bones and offal being burnt, the flesh is roasted and eaten, but no one must take home with him any scrap of the victim.'

Two special shrines of Sîtalâ in Upper India may be specially referred to. That at Kankhal near Hardwâr has a curious legend, which admirably illustrates the catholicity of Hinduism. Here the local Sîtalâ has the special title of Turkin, or "the Muhammadan lady." There was once a

1 Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," ii. 1161; Tylor, “Early History," 143; Spencer, "Principles of Sociology," i. 229; Šir W. Scott, "Lectures on Demonology," 105.

Risley, "Tribes and Castes of Bengal,” i. 179.