Note 112 — Chapter III · TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.
Reading edition
The same customs prevail among the artisan castes in Northern India. The hair-scraper of the tanner is worshipped by curriers, and the potter’s wheel, regarded as a type of productiveness, is reverenced at marriages by many of the lower castes. Even the clay which has been mixed by the potter has mystic powers. When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, a lump of this clay is brought, and the wound is touched with it while a spell is recited.112 Carpenters worship their yard measure; Chamârs swear by the shoemaker’s last, and the children of the Darzi or tailor are made to worship the scissors.