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<h1>Omens and Superstitions of Southern India</h1>
<h3>by Thurston, Edgar</h3>
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<h2 class="main">Preface</h2>
<p class="first">This book deals mainly with some aspects of what may
be termed the psychical life of the inhabitants of the Madras
Presidency, and the Native States of Travancore and Cochin. In my
“Ethnographic Notes in Southern India” (1906), I stated
that the confused chapter devoted to omens, animal superstitions, evil
eye, charms, sorcery, etc., was a mere outline sketch of a group of
subjects, which, if worked up, would furnish material for a volume.
This chapter has now been remodelled, and supplemented by notes
collected since its publication, and information which lies buried in
the seven bulky volumes of my encyclopædic “Castes and
Tribes of Southern India” (1909). The area dealt with (roughly,
182,000 square miles, with a population of 47,800,000) is so vast that
I have had perforce to supplement the personal knowledge acquired in
the course of wandering expeditions in various parts of Southern India,
and in other ways, by recourse to the considerable mass of information,
which is hidden away in official reports, gazetteers, journals of
societies, books, etc.</p>
<p>To the many friends and correspondents, European <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN id="pb8" href="#pb8" name="pb8">8</SPAN>]</span>and Indian,
who have helped me in the accumulation of facts, and those whose
writings I have made liberal use of, I would once more express
collectively, and with all sincerity, my great sense of indebtedness.
My thanks are due to Mr L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer for supplying me
with the illustrations of Malabar yantrams. <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN id="pb9" href="#pb9" name="pb9">9</SPAN>]</span></p>
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