Tadhkirah — Page 410
410 the Punjab. Those trees were very ugly, black in colour, terrifying and of small size. I asked some of those who were planting them: What kind of trees are these? They answered: These are trees of the plague which is about to spread in the country. It remained unclear to me whether it was said that the plague would spread during the coming winter or the winter after, but it was a terrible sight which I saw. [Announcement of Plague, February 6, 1898, Majm u ‘a-e-Ishtih a r a t, vol. 3, p. 5, Ayy a mu s-S ula h, p. 121, R uha n i Khaz a ’in, vol. 4, p. 361] (B) When this prophecy was published on February 6, 1898, only two districts in the Punjab were affected by the plague. But thereafter twenty-three districts were affected by it. In less than ten months, there were 316,000 cases and 218,799 persons died according to figures published by the Government. [Nuz ul u l-M as ih, pp. 153–154, R uha n i Khaz a ’in, vol. 18, pp. 531–532 footnote] February 1898 I have learned through a spiritual means that this disease [the plague] and itching have the same essence and I believe that this is probably true because the remedies for itching all contain mercury or sulphur and it is imagined that such medicines might be helpful in the case of plague also. If the essence of these two disorders is the same it would not be a matter for surprise if inducing the disorder of itching would reduce the chances of being affected by the plague. This is a mystery of the spiritual methods from which I have benefited. If those who are occupied in research could pay attention to it and would take steps to spread the disorder of itching among those who are likely to be victims of the plague, it might be that the germs of plague might thereby be dissolved and the spread of the