Note 54 — Chapter III · DISEASE DEITIES.
Reading edition
The remedies adopted for the abatement of epidemic diseases have already been mentioned above, the most common being the winding of a cotton-thread, the pouring out of dhārāvādi, i.e., milk, in the village, and the taking of the rath of the Mātā in a procession beyond the village boundary, the epidemic being supposed to be expelled in the rath. In the last case, after the rath has been taken to the neighbouring village, a charmed peg is sometimes driven into the ground near the village boundary to prevent the epidemic from crossing back again.54