HEALTH AND MEDICINE IN COLONIAL ORISSA 5 Kandha relieving himself he threw the flower on him and said, 'Go and become syphilis, the scorpion disease'. Fifteen days later Jagat fell ill and the sun god was very pleased. He said to the disease, 'Become a fly and go into the bellies of many men'.5 In this folk tale we see a host of features, which go much beyond the standard image of the angry/insulted sun god striking back with syphilis. The underlying assumption establishes a'connection between human excreta/waste and disease. Thus, this conceptualisation seems to emphasise that before human beings dirtied the earth there was no disease.6 This co-exits with the notion of uncleanness that suggests a certain degree of Hinduisation. Again, one cannot miss the association made between sexual activity and disease What also emerges is a critique of male sexuality, with a connection being made between syphilis and man, who emerge as its source on the earth. One can also see this as an ascetic distrust of sex, which was perhaps an offshoot of the complex process that led to the Hinduisation of the tribes. Another common belief was that gods sent diseases because the earth was getting over-crowded by human beings. The Didayis, for example, felt that mapru ( god ) sent epidemics to earth in order to prevent it from being over-populated. A further variant of this belief was that hungry gods sent down diseases in order to obtain offerings from devotees. Thus as described: For twelve years the gods went hungry, without anyone taking notice of them. At last in despair they went to Rumrok the 'supreme god', and complained that they had nothing to eat or drink since they were born, twelve years ago. The 'supreme god' advised them to visit a Didayi in a particular village and to torment his children by giving one fever, another fits, a third dysentery and the others itches. He assured them that the Didayis would soon give them all that they wanted to eat. The gods found the Didayi family large, happy, prosperous and at peace. However, very soon all of them fell ill. The Didayi was terrified and he appealed to Rumrok for help. The 'supreme god' told him that* gods were responsible for the illness in his family, and asked the Didayi to make offerings to the local godlings.7 What we see is a cosmology that stressed on some form of balance, which over-population or crowding disturbed. It particularly sought to emphasise this when it came to epidemics and certain diseases like fever, dysentery and itches. Although gods, and offerings to please