“Here is thy head!”
At the second he repeats the sacred ceremony and murmurs:—
“Káthe hin t’ro perá!”
“Here is thy belly!”
And again at the third he exclaims:—
“Te kathehin t’re punrá.
Já átunci ándre páñi!”
“And here are thy feet.
Go now into the water!”
But while passing from one stream to another he must not look back once, for then he might behold the dread demon of the fever which follows him, neither must he open his mouth, except while uttering the charm, for then the fever would at once enter his body again through the portal thus left unclosed. This walking on in apprehension of beholding the ugly spectre will recall to the reader a passage in the “Ancient Mariner,” of the man who walks in fear and dread,