SMALL -PDX —Jadari, ARAR. Mata Sitla, HIND., ARIUT7 TAM., TEL. — is reg'arded 'by the Hindus as a manifestation of the Hindu goddess called Matia-tal, Mari-amma, Devi, Main, or Sitla, who is supposed by them to be a form of Kali, the wife of Siva. In the south of the Peninsula, the person affected is removed to a separate room. A pot filled with water is placed it) the room with the patient, covered over with a saffron-stained cloth and leaves of the nim tree, representing the goddess. These leaves are also sprinkled about the bed of the person infected, who uses the tender twigs of the same tree to relieve him self from the irritation occasioned by the pustules, which, when they becotne ore, are smeared over -with a, paste made from the leaves. No strange]s or unclean persons are allowed to enter the room where the patient is, both being considered at the time sacred. No puja is allowed to be performed with the ringing of bells, so that the patient may not be disturbed. Oil is not allowed to be lased by members of the family when ablutions are por formed, it being considered a non-conductor of prurient matter ; and auy one who has been shaved is also prohibited entering the room. No diet is observec1,—curds, butter-milk, curry, and rice, and any other articles of food which the patient may desire, are given. When the patient recovers, widows Etre invited, and fed and clothed ; little itnages called selhty, in the form of horses, are made of clay or stone, and placed near the Iyenar or tutelary god's temple. The Sudras offer rams, fowls, and ragi, and arnbali or kulu is distributed among the poor. When small-pox makes its appearance in a village, men and women give out that the goddess Maria-tal has come upon them. They then dress themselves out fantastically, gener ally in saffron-stained cloths, and carry on their heads a pot of water, with two or three smaller pots over it, one upon the other. These pots are ornamented with saffron and ochre, and- garlands are suspended from them, amongst which several limes are fixed. The bearers of these pots carry in their hands a small drum (Ooduku), which they beat with their hands. ,Some also dance, and with wonderful skill retain the burden on their heads. As they pass through the streets they stand before each house, the residents of which come out and pour water on the feet of the bacchantes, and present them with money. In
the Malayalam and some other districts, so soon as a person is attacked with the disease, he is taken out of the village to a distance of a mile or more, and left in a thatched building, to which food is sent by a miserable old mac or woman ; and so afraid are they of the ravag,es of the complaint, that no one else will approach the place, In Ceylon, atnongst the avenging scourges sent direct from the gods, the Singhalese regard both the ravages of the leopard and the visitation of the small-pox. The latter they call maha ledda,' the great sickness ; they look upon it as a special manifestation of devidosay, 'the displeasure of the gods.' In Ceylon, such is the awe inspired by this belief in connection with the small-pox, that a person afflicted with it is always approached as one in immediate communication with the deity ; his attendants address hint as cmy lord ' and 'your lordship,' and exhaust on hitn the whole series of honorific epithets in which- their lan guage abounds for approaching personages of the most exalted rank. At evening and morning, a lamp is lighted before him, and invoked with prayers to protect his family from the diro calamity which has befallen himself. And after I is tecovery, his former associates refrain front communication with hint until a, ceremony shall have been perfotmed by the capwa, called a wasara-pandenta, or the offering of lights for permission,' the object of which is to entreat per tid-sion of the deity to regard hint as freed from the divine displeasure, with liberty to his friends to renew their intercourse as before.
Sir J. M. Tennent says leopards are strongly Lt'racted by the peculiar odour which accom !aides small-pox. About the middle of the 19th century, the capwa, or demon priest of a dewale,' Oggalbadda, a village near Cahurt, when suf feting under stnall-pox, was devoured by a cheeta, and his fate was regarded by those of an opposite faith as a special judgment from heaven.
Masson says (Narrative, pp. 307-319) that persons milking a camel ill with small-pox con tract what is called the poto- shutar or camel small-13°x, and become also inaccessible to vario lous contagion equally with those who receive the analogous disease from the cow. He was assured that nO ftttal results were ever known to follow from either the vaccine or the cameline disease.— 'fennel/es Ceylon, p. 28; Masson, p. 307.