the convulsions and the chant
cease, and the deona carefully takes up a little of the sulphur off the
man's body and puts into the tube, which he then seals with the second
tikli. The deona and one of the man's friends then leave the hut,
taking the iron tube and rice with them, the spirit being now supposed
out of the man and bottled up in the iron tube. They hurry across
country until they leave the hut some miles behind. Then they go to the
edge of some tank or river, to some place they know to be frequented by
people for the purposes of bathing, &c., where, after some further
ceremony, the iron is stuck into the ground and left there. This is
done with the benevolent intention that the spirit may transfer its
attentions to the unfortunate person who may happen to touch it while
bathing. I am told the spirit in this case usually chooses a young and
healthy person. Should the deona think the spirit has not been able to
suit itself with a new receptacle, he repairs to where a bazaar is
taking place and there (after some ceremony) he mixes with the crowd,
and taking a grain of the reddened rice jerks it with his forefinger and
thumb in such a way that without attracting attention it falls on the
person or clothes of some. This is done several times to make certain.
Then the deona declares he has done his work, and is usually treated to
the best dinner the sick man's friends can afford. It is said that the
person to whom the spirit by either of these methods is transferred may
not be affected for weeks or even months. But some fine day while he is
at his work, he will suddenly stop, wheel round two or three times on
his heels and fall down more or less convulsed, from that time forward
he will begin to be troubled in the same way as his dis-obsessed
predecessor was.
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* Tikli is a circular piece of gilt paper which is stuck on between the
eyebrows of the women of the Province as ornament.
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Having thus given some account of the deona, we now come to the bhagat,
called by the Hindus sokha and sivnath. This is the highest grade of
all, and, as I ought to have mentioned before, the 'ilm (knowledge) of
both the deona and bhagat grades is only to be learned by becoming a
regular chela of a practitioner; but I am given to understand that the
final initiation is much hastened by a seasonable liberality on the part
of the chela. During the initiation of the sokha certain ceremonies are
performed at
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