Note 48 — Chapter III · DISEASE DEITIES.

Another belief is that the Bhangis charm seeds of adad and cloves by repeating magic incantations over them, and afterwards strew them on a highway in order that those who step on them may be attacked by cholera or some similar disease.48 One motive suggested for such action is that they are thereby likely to receive their garments, which would be used for covering the bodies.49 Also at the outbreak of such an epidemic, clothes, cocoanuts, ghi, molasses, wheat flour, etc., are offered by the people to the Bhangis, who in return give a dorā, a piece of thread, of black wool to be worn by the afflicted persons.50