They all recovered, but the wife was laid up with some uterine disorder
- Date of account
- Published 1912
- Source
- Omens and Superstitions of Southern India
- Reference
- Omens and Superstitions of Southern India · selected passage 5
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-25
Record summary
They all recovered, but the wife was laid up with some uterine disorder
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyThey all recovered, but the wife was laid up with some uterine disorder. An astrologer was sent for, and said that the site on which the house was built was once the property of a Brahman, whose spirit still haunted it, and must be appeased. Expensive ceremonies were performed by Brahmans for a fortnight. The house was sold to a Brahman priest for a nominal price. A gold image of the deceased Brahman was made, and, after the purification ceremonies had been carried out, taken to the sacred shrine at Ramesvaram, where arrangements were made to have daily worship performed to it. The house, in its purified state, was sold back by the Brahman priest. The merchant's wife travelled by train to Madras, to undergo treatment at the Maternity Hospital. The astrologer predicted that the displeasure of the spirit would be exhibited on the way by the breaking of dishes and by furniture catching fire--a strange prediction, because the bed on which the woman was lying caught fire by a spark from the engine.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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