Note 6 — VI Charms
Reading edition
It was noted by Lieutenant R. F. Burton6 that, in some hamlets, the Kotas of the Nīlgiris have set up curiously carved stones, which they consider sacred, and attribute to them the power of curing diseases, if the member affected is rubbed against them. At cross-roads in Bellary, odd geometric patterns may sometimes be noticed. These are put there at night by people suffering from disease, in the hope that the affliction will pass to the person who first treads on the charm.7