But although they did not open the grave yet they arranged for certain vows to be taken in honour of the dead man, and that put a stop to the disease.[52]
Another story from the same place is that when small-pox once raged furiously in that village, the people of the place celebrated a magnificent feast of dainties prepared of wheat-flour, ghi, molasses, rice and pulse, and afterwards the Dheds of the village lopped off the head of a dead he-buffalo, burying it at the spot where the feast was held.[53]
The remedies adopted for the abatement of epidemic diseases have already been mentioned above, the most common being the winding of a cotton-thread, the pouring out of dhārāvādi, i.e., milk, in the village, and the taking of the rath of the Mātā in a procession beyond the village boundary, the epidemic being supposed to be expelled in the rath. In the last case, after the rath has been taken to the neighbouring village, a charmed peg is sometimes driven into the ground near the village boundary to prevent the epidemic from crossing back again.[54]
Mention has already been made of the deities which protect the cattle and to whose displeasure diseases among cattle are attributed. It is said that such diseases are very common during the vishi of Shiva. A cycle of twenty years is called a vishi, three such cycles making a complete samvatsar of sixty years. Each of such vishis is presided over and named after each of the three gods of the Trinity, Brahmā, Vishnu and Shiva. The vishi of Brahmā is characterized by protection and creation, that of Vishnu by growth and that of Shiva by destruction, the last often bringing on such calamities as plague, famine and diseases among cattle.[55]
The following are some of the remedies practised by the village people in the case of certain cattle-diseases.
In the case of such diseases as movā kharavā or the like, there is a practice of burying a plough near one’s gates, which is afterwards covered with dust gathered from three streets and is worshiped with a branch of a tree, a plate of iron and red lead. This ceremony has to be performed either on a Sunday or a Tuesday, and the man who performs it has to remain naked at the time.[56]
For the cure of valo (a disease in which the throat is inflamed), pieces of the stalk of kukad-vel (a kind of creeper) are tied round the neck or the horns of the diseased animal and no other food except ghi and molasses is allowed to it for two or three days. A handful of salt is sometimes thrown on the back of the animal.[57] Sesamum oil is also said to work as a good medicine in the case of the same disease.[58]
Another remedy for the same disease is to pass a knotted bamboo stick with seven knots seven times over the back of the ailing animal.[59]
Ghi is sometimes used as a medicine in the case of small-pox. In the case of shakario or kālo vā, the animal is branded in the affected limbs. To one suffering from a stye in the eye an ointment prepared from the horn of a deer is applied, while a mixture of whey and salt is said to be useful in most eye maladies. The treatment for the swelling of the belly is a mixture of molasses, ajamo (ligusticum ajwaen) and sanchal (a kind of salt). To cure an animal of khāpari (a disease which affects milch-cattle), the milk of the affected animal is poured on rāfdā (a kind of jujube tree). If after delivery, some part of the embryo remains inside an animal, milk and molasses are given to expedite its removal.[60]
In the case of kharavā the ailing animal is made to move about in hot sand and is treated with salt, which is first fried on the fire of Holi. The remedy for the disease known as kumbhava is to give a dose of castor oil, sanchal, ajamo and hot water to the sick animal and also to tie a magic thread round its neck.[61]