Note 39 — Chapter III · THE GODLINGS OF DISEASE.

In Hoshangâbâd the Bhomka sorcerer has a handful of grain waved over the head of the sick man. This is then carried to the Bhomka, who makes a heap of it on the floor, and sitting over it, swings a lighted lamp suspended by four strings from his fingers. He then repeats slowly the names of the patient’s ancestors and of the village and local godling, pausing between each, and when the lamp stops spinning the name at which it halts is the name to be propitiated. Then in the same way he asks—“What is the propitiation offering to be? A pig? A cocoanut? A chicken? A goat?” And the same mystic sign indicates the satisfaction of the god.39