To cure the evil eye they place a little gunpowder in water and
apply it to the sufferer's eyes, the idea perhaps being that the
fiery glance from the evil eye which struck him is quenched like the
gunpowder. To bring on rain they perform a frog marriage, tying two
frogs to a pestle and pouring oil and turmeric over them as in a real
marriage. The children carry them round begging from door to door and
finally deposit them in water. They say that when rain falls and the
sun shines together the jackals are being married. Formerly a woman
suspected of being a witch was tied up in a bag and thrown into a
river or tank at various places set apart for the purpose. If she
sank she was held to be innocent, and if she floated, guilty. In the
latter case she had to defile herself by taking the bone of a cow
and the tail of a pig in her mouth, and it was supposed that this
drove out the magic-working spirit. In the case of illness of their
children or cattle, or the failure of crops, they consult the Pujari
or priest and make an offering. He applies some flowers or grains of
rice to the forehead of the deity, and when one of these falls down
he diagnoses from it the nature of the illness, and gives it to the
sufferer to wear as a charm.