Note 6 — Chapter X · WITCHCRAFT.

At Dásgáv in the Kolába District, there is a custom of carrying one onion in the corn taken to the fields for sowing and placing five handfuls of corn on a piece of cloth before beginning to sow the corn. At the time of Láwani or plantation of crops a fair called Palejatra is held by the people, and every farmer breaks a cocoanut in the field at the time of plantation or lávani of crops. At the time of harvesting it is customary with many of the cultivators in the Konkan to place a cocoanut in the field and to thrash it by the first bundle of crop several times before the regular operation of thrashing is begun. At the close of the harvest the peasants offer cocoanuts, fowls or a goat to the guardian deity of the field.6