Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

This book mainly 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 the author’s “Ethnographic Notes in Southern India” (1906), he had stated that the confused chapters on 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 the author’sencyclopaedic”Castes and Tribes of Southern India” (1909).