The date and hour of the wedding are fixed by an official known as
the Meda Gantia, or Counter of Posts. He is a sort of illiterate
village astrologer, who can foretell the character of the rainfall,
and gives auspicious dates for sowing and harvest. He goes through
some training, and as a test of his capacity is required by his
teacher to tell at a glance the number of posts in an enclosure which
he has not seen before. Having done this correctly he qualifies as
a Meda Gantia. Apparently the Bhatras, being unable at one time to
count themselves, acquired an exaggerated reverence for the faculty
of counting, and thought that if a man could only count far enough
he could reckon into the future; or it might be thought that as he
could count and name future days, he thus obtained power over them,
and could tell what would happen on them just as one can obtain power
over a man and work him injury by knowing his real name.