Note 63 — Chapter III · THE GODLINGS OF DISEASE.

Some time ago an indigo planter, near Benares, was astonished by a respectable native friend asking the loan of one of his geese. On inquiry he ascertained that his friend’s son was suffering from bowel complaint, and that he had been advised by a native physician to get a goose, place it in the boy’s bed, and that the disease would be communicated to the bird, with the result of curing the patient. This remedy was known in Italy. One of the prescriptions of Marcellus runs:63 “To those who are suffering from a colic. Let them fasten a live duck to their stomachs, thus the disease will pass from the man to the duck, and the duck will die.” In the same way when any one wants to set their neighbour’s household at variance, a quill of a porcupine, which is supposed to be a quarrelsome animal, is thrown over the wall. On this principle in Italy a short and simple method of setting people by the ears is to buy some of the herb Discordia and throw it into a house, when the result is sure to be a vendetta.64 In the Indian Hills, in case of illness a stake is driven down into the earth where four roads meet, and certain drugs and grains are buried close by, which are speedily disinterred and eaten by crows. This gives immediate relief to the sufferer.65 Here the idea apparently is, that the disease is transferred to the crow, a sacred bird, and in close communication with the spirits of the sainted dead. So in cases of cattle disease, a buffalo’s skull, a small lamb, fire in a pan, vessels of butter and milk, wisps of grass and branches of the Siras tree (Acacia speciosa) are thrown over the boundary of another village and are supposed to carry the disease demon with them. This often causes a riot.66 In the same way, killing buffaloes and putting their heads in the next village removes cholera, and by pouring oil on grain and burning it, the disease flies elsewhere in the smoke. This seems to be one of the principles which underlie the general practice of fire sacrifice.