khus-khus

As cups of water were poured over screens of khus-khus grass to cool homes, and millions of Indians drank curd milk mixed with salt, the superstitious villagers of Uttar Pradesh put slices of onion beneath their turbans and hung garlic on their fans in the belief it would ward off sunstroke.

Among the other materials may be enumerated the odorous roots of the khus-khus grass, Anatherum muricatum, and the leaves of various species of screw pine, used in India and the East generally.

Khus-Khus, or Vetiver grass of India.

They are all composed of tiny twigs and fine grass-stems, and the roots of the khus-khus grass, as a rule, neatly and tightly woven together, and exteriorly bound round with a good deal of cobweb, in which a few feathers are sometimes entangled.

Another one was constructed entirely of fine roots, like the khus-khus used for tatties, and plastered over like the former with cobwebs.