Note 60 — Chapter III · THE GODLINGS OF DISEASE.

He “points to the undoubted nature of the offerings and their service, in the identification of their owners—a service which implies their power to bear witness in spirit-land to the pilgrimage of those who deposited them during lifetime at the sacred well.” Some of the Indian evidence seems to show that these rags are really offerings to the sacred tree. Thus, Colonel Tod60 describes the trees in a sacred grove in Râjputâna as decorated with shreds of various coloured cloth, “offerings of the traveller to the forest divinity for protection against evil spirits.” This usage often merges into actual tree-worship, as among the Mirzapur Patâris, who, when fever prevails, tie a cotton string which has never touched water round the trunk of a Pîpal tree, and hang rags from the branches. So, the Kharwârs have a sacred Mahua tree, known as the Byâhi Mahua or “Mahua of marriage,” on which threads are hung at marriages. At almost any holy place women may be seen winding a cotton thread round the trunk of a Pîpal tree.