There was a disthikarn in Byculla, Mumbai. It was a awesome place with tons of candles and there was a strange air to it, a very morose space. Her daughter continued after her mother passed away. I was taken to the mother, since I was a frightened child--living in fear, having witnessed/imagined strange stuff. The next trip was to the gravedigger, Joao the Peddo of Batim, about whom I wrote about some time back. Then I was told to cool it on GN way back around Easter.
The belief in the evil eye was WIDE. WWW IIIIII DDD EEEEE. People also felt helpless. Those dots on the faces of babies, and infants; the bangles, pengtyan, are all talismans. In homes it was dhoomp, salt, chillies. Also alum if I am not mistaken. After burning and the child being "anointed" the "burnt offerings" were to be thrown far away. ++++++++++++ venantius j pinto From: Frederick Noronha <f...@goa-india.org> > To: Goanet <goa...@goanet.org> > Subject: [Goanet] Disth? > > It's called disth in Goa. But I didn't realise the belief in "evil eye" > was so widespread in different forms across the globe: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye > > > ------------------------------ > * * * How were the 1950s, East African Goans and British Overseas Citizenship linked? Which Kenyan-Goan was one of the world fastest sprinters in the 1960s? What did the 1878 London-Lisbon treaty mean to Goa? Find your answers in Selma Carvalho's *Into the Goan Diaspora Wilderness*. Buy from Broadways Book Centre, Panjim [Ph +91-9822488564] Price (in Goa only) Rs 295. http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ * * *
