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The work presents a systematic ethnographic survey of northern Indian popular religion and folk-lore, recording beliefs, rituals, and everyday preventative practices. It examines the evil eye and its remedies, tree and serpent cults, totemic and fetish practices, animal worship, witchcraft and black art, and seasonal rural festivals, drawing on local testimony and observed customs. The account describes naming taboos, protective marks and charms, sacrificial and ceremonial forms, and the social logic that underpins ritual responses to misfortune. Chapters conclude with bibliographic references and an index to aid further study.
The eel is a totem of the Mundâri Kols of Bengal and of the Orâons, neither of whom will eat it. In Northern England an eel skin tied round the leg is a cure for cramp. Eel fat, in the European tales, is used as a magic ointment, and gives the power of seeing the fairies.157