March 04, 2026
EUGENIA
In Burmah, the Eugenia is regarded as a sacred plant. When a spray is cut, prayers and supplications for absent friends and relatives are offered up before it, and twigs and leaves of it are kept in consecrated water in almost every house, and occasionally the different apartments are sprinkled with it as a protective against ghosts, ogres, and evil spirits. The twigs of Eugenia are sometimes hung about the eaves, and in many cases a small plant is kept growing in a pot in the house, so that its benign influence may keep harm away.
In cases of cholera epidemic, the natives of the affected district betake themselves to a Buddhist monastery, carrying presents and a small pot partly filled with water, and containing leaves of a species of Eugenia (Tha-byay-bin), and some coarse yellow string wound round a small stick. These pots are blessed by the Buddhist abbot, and are then taken away by the people, who either hang up the yellow string in little bags round the eaves of their houses, or else wear it coiled round the left wrist. The pots of water and sprigs of Eugenia are kept in the house to guard it from infection.