Note 44 — Chapter VI · THE EVIL EYE AND THE SCARING OF GHOSTS.
Reading edition
In a chapter called Brahmottar Khand of the Padma Purān, which describes the glory of a vow called Uma Mahesh, the greatness of observing fasts on Mondays is described at length. Two Brāhman brothers, one dressed as a man and the other as a woman, set out on a journey. Once they halted in a temple of the god Shiva, where lived a woman who had observed the fasts on Mondays. She invited them to dinner, taking them, as they appeared to be, for a man and a woman. The devotion of the hostess was so great that the brother dressed as a woman was actually transformed into a woman while partaking of the meal served to him.44