CHAPTER IV.

ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

Tô de kai Automedôn hypage zygon ôkeas hippous

Chanthon kai Balion, tô hama pnoiêsi petesthên

Tous eteke Zephyrô anemô Harpuia Podargê

Boskomenê leimôni para rhoon Ôkeanoio.

Iliad, xvi. 148-51.

Origin of Animal-worship.

We now come to consider the special worship of certain animals. The

origin of this form of belief may possibly be traced to many different

sources.

In the first place, no savage fixes the boundary line between man

and the lower forms of animal life so definitely as more civilized

races are wont to do. The animal, in their belief, has very much the

same soul, much the same feelings and passion as men have, a theory

exemplified in the way the Indian ploughman speaks to his ox, or the

shepherd calls his flock.

To him, again, the belief is familiar that the spirits of his ancestors

appear in the form of animals, as among the Drâvidian races they

come in the shape of a tiger which attacks the surviving relatives,

or as a chicken which leaves the mark of its footsteps in the ashes

when it re-visits its former home.

So, all these people believe that the witch soul wanders about at

night, and for want of a better shape enters into some animal, takes

the form of a tiger or a bear, or flies through the air like a bird.

All through folk-lore we find the idea that man has kinship with

animals generally accepted. We constantly find the girl wooed by the

frog, marrying the pigeon, elephant, eagle, or whale. Every child

in the nursery reads of the frog Prince, and no savage sees any

particular incongruity in his marriage and transformation. In more

than one of the Indian tales the childless wife longs for a child

and is delivered of a snake.

The incident of animal metamorphosis is also familiar. Thus, in one

of Somadeva's tales his mistress turns a man into an ox; in another

his wife transforms him into a buffalo; in a third the angry hermit

turns the king into an elephant. [541] Everyone remembers the terrific

scene of transformation into various animals which makes up the tale

of the second Qalandar in the Arabian Nights. Animals, too, constantly

assume other shapes. In one of the Bengal stories the mouse becomes a

cat. In other Indian tales the golden deer becomes the mannikin demon,

the white hind becomes the white witch, the hero's mother becomes a

black bitch, the hero himself a parrot, and so on. [542] In fact a

large part of the incidents of Indian stories turns on various forms

of metamorphosis, and every English child knows how the lover of Earl

Mar's daughter took the shape of a dove.

We have again the very common incident in the folk-tales of animals

understanding the speech of human beings, and men learning the tongue

of birds, and the like. Solomon, according to the Qurân, knew the

language of animals; in the tales of Somadeva, the Vaisya Bhâshâjna

knows the language of all beasts and birds, a faculty which in Germany

is gained by eating a white snake. [543]

Then there is the large cycle of tales in which the grateful animal

warns the hero or heroine of approaching danger, as in the story of

Bopuluchi, or brings news, or produces gold. The idea of grateful

animals assisting their benefactors runs through the whole range of

folk-lore. [544]

Another series of cognate ideas has been very carefully analyzed by

Mr. Campbell. The spirits of the dead haunt two places, the house

and the tomb. Those who haunt the house are friendly; those who haunt

the tomb are unfriendly. Two classes of animals correspond to these

two classes of spirits--an at-home, fearless class, as the snake, the

rat, flies and ants and bees, into which the home-haunting or friendly

spirits would go; and a wild, unsociable class, such as bats and owls,

dogs, jackals, or vultures, into which the unfriendly or tomb-haunting

spirits would go. In the case of some of these tomb-haunting animals,

the dog, jackal, and vulture, the feeling towards them as tomb-haunters

seems to have given place to the belief that as the spirit lives in

the tomb where the body is laid, so, if the body be eaten by an animal,

the spirit lives in the animal, as in a living tomb. [545]

Other animals, again, are invested with particular qualities,

fierceness and courage, strength or agility, and eating part of their

flesh, or wearing a portion as an amulet, conveys to the possessor the

qualities of the animal. A familiar instance of this is the belief in

the claws and flesh of the tiger as amulets or charms against disease

and the influence of evil spirits.

Many animals, too, are respected for their use to man or as scarers

of demons, as the cow; as possessors of wisdom, like the elephant or

snake; as semi-human in origin or character, as the ape. But it is,

perhaps, dangerous to attempt, as Mr. Campbell has done, to push the

classification much farther, because the respect paid to any particular

animal is possibly based on varied and diverging lines of belief.

Lastly, as Mr. Frazer has shown, many animals are regarded as

representing the Corn spirit, and are either revered or killed in

their divine forms to promote the return of vegetation with each

recurring spring.

Horse-worship.

To illustrate some of these principles from the worship of certain

special animals, we may begin with the horse.

War horses were so highly prized by the early Aryans in their battles

with the aborigines, that the horse, under the name of Dadhikra,

"he that scatters the hoar frost like milk," soon became an object

of worship, and in the Veda we have a spirited account of the worship

paid to this godlike being. [546]

Another horse often spoken of in the early legends is Syâma Karna,

"he with the black ears," which alone was considered a suitable victim

in the horse sacrifice or Asvamedha. One hundred horse sacrifices

entitled the sacrificer to displace Indra from heaven, so the deity

was always trying to capture the horse which was allowed to roam about

before immolation. The saint Gâlava, who was a pupil of Visvamitra,

when he had completed his studies, asked his tutor what fee he should

pay. The saint told him that he charged no fee, but he insisted in

asking, till at last the angry Rishi said that he would be content

with nothing less than a thousand black-eared horses. After long

search Gâlava found three childless Râjas, who had each two hundred

such horses, and they consented to exchange them for sons. Gâlava then

went to Yayâti, whose daughter could bear a son for any one and still

remain a virgin. By her means the three Râjas became fathers of sons,

Visvamitra took them, and to make up the number, had himself two sons

by the same mystic bride.

In the Mahâbhârata, Uchchaihsravas, "he with the long ears," or

"he that neighs loudly," is the king of the horses, and belongs to

Indra. He is swift as thought, follows the path of the sun, and is

luminous and white, with a black tail, made so by the magic of the

serpents, who have covered it with black hair. In the folk-tales he

consorts with mares of mortal birth, and begets steeds of unrivalled

speed, like the divine Homeric coursers of Æneas. [547] In the

tales of Somadeva we find the king addressing his faithful horse,

and praying for his aid in danger, as Achilles speaks to his steeds

Xanthos and Balios, and in the Karling legend of Bayard. [548] We

meet also with the horse of Manidatta, which was "white as the moon;

the sound of its neighing was as musical as that of a clear conch or

other sweet-sounding instrument; it looked like the waves of the sea

of milk surging on high; it was marked with curls on the neck, and

adorned with the crest jewels, the bracelet, and other signs, which

it seemed it had acquired by being born in the race of Gandharvas."

At a later mythological stage we meet Kalki, the white horse which is

to be the last Avatâra of Vishnu, and reminds us of the white horse

of the Book of Revelation. We meet in the Rig Veda with Yatudhanas,

the demon horse, which feeds now upon human flesh (like the Bucephalus

of the legend of Alexander), now upon horseflesh, and now upon milk

from cows. He has a host of brethren, such as Arvan, half horse,

half bird, on which the Daityas are supposed to ride. Dadhyanch or

Dadhîcha has a curious legend. He was a Rishiand. Indra, after teaching

him the sciences, threatened to cut his head off if he communicated

the knowledge to any one else. But the Aswins tempted him to disobey

the god, and then, to save him from the wrath of Indra, cut off his

head and replaced it with that of a horse. Finally Indra found his

horse-head in the lake at Kurukshetra, and using it as Sampson did

the jaw-bone of the ass, he slew the Asuras. We have, again, Vishnu

in the form of Hayagrîva, or "horse-necked," which he assumed to

save the Veda, carried off by two Asuras, and in another shape he

is Hayasiras or Hayasîrsha, which vomits forth fire and drinks up

the waters. In the Purânas we meet the Daitya Kesi, who assumes the

form of a horse and attacks Krishna, but the hero thrusts his hand

into his mouth and rends him asunder. A large chapter of Scottish

folk-lore depends on the doings of magic horses such as these. [549]

The flying horse of the Arabian Nights has been transferred into

many of the current folk-tales, and has found its way into European

folk-lore. [550] In the same connection we meet the magic bridle;

the flying car, such as Pushpaka, the flying vehicle of Kuvera, the

god of wealth; the flying bed, the Urân Khatola of the Indian tales;

the flying boat, and the flying shoes. [551]

There are numerous other horses famous in Hindu legend. The saint Alam

Sayyid of Baroda was known as Ghorê Kâ Pîr, or the horse saint. His

horse was buried near him, and Hindus hang images of the animal on

trees round his tomb. [552] We have already spoken of Gûga and his

mare Javâdiyâ. The horse of the king of Bhilsa or Bhadrâvatî was of

dazzling brightness, and regarded as the palladium of the kingdom,

but in spite of all the care bestowed upon it, it was carried off by

the Pândavas.

There is a stock horse miracle story told in connection with Lâl Beg,

the patron saint of the sweepers. The king of Delhi lost a valuable

horse, and the sweepers were ordered to bury it, but as the animal was

very fat, they proceeded to cut it up for themselves, giving one leg to

the king's priest. They took the meat home and proceeded to cook it,

but being short of salt, they sent an old woman to buy some. She went

to the salt merchant's shop and pressed him to serve her at once,

"If you do not hurry," said she, "a thousand rupees' worth of meat

will be ruined." He informed the king, who, suspecting the state of

the case, ordered the sweepers to produce the horse. They were in

dismay at the order, but they laid what was left of the animal on a

mound sacred to Lâl Beg, and prayed to him to save them, whereupon

the horse stood up, but only on three legs. So they went to the king

and confessed how they had disposed of the fourth leg. The unlucky

priest was executed, and the horse soon after died also. [553]

The horse is regarded as a lucky and exceedingly pure animal. When a

cooking vessel has become in any way defiled, a common way of purifying

it is to make a horse smell it. In the Dakkhin it is said that evil

spirits will not approach a horse for fear of his foam. [554] In

Northern India, the entry of a man on horseback into a sugar-cane field

during sowing time is regarded as auspicious. This taking of omens

from horses was well known in Germany, and Tacitus says, "Proprium

gentis equorum praesagia ac monitus experiri, hinnitus ac fremitus

observant." [555] There does not appear to be in India any trace of

the idea prevalent in England that the horse has the power of seeing

ghosts, or that it can cure diseases such as whooping cough. [556]

But, like the bull, the stallion is believed to scare the demon of

barrenness. In the Râmâyana, Kausalyâ touches the stallion in the

hope of obtaining sons, and with the same object the king and queen

smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse. The water

in which a fish is washed has the same effect on women in Western

folk-lore. With the same object, at the Asvamedha, the queen lies at

night beside the slain sacrificial horse. [557]

It is popularly supposed that the horse originally had wings, and that

the chestnuts or scars on the legs are the places where the wings

originally grew. Eating horseflesh is supposed to bring on cramp,

and when a Sepoy at rifle practice misses the target, his comrades

taunt him with having eaten the unlucky meat. [558]

Modern Horse-worship.

Of modern horse-worship there are many examples. The Palliwâl

Brâhmans of Jaysalmer worship the bridle of a horse, which Colonel Tod

supposes to prove the Scythic origin of the early colonists, who were

equestrian as well as nomadic. [559] Horse-worship is still mixed up

with the creed of the Buddhists of Yunân, who doubtless derived it

from India. [560]

In Western India this form of worship is common. It is the chief object

of reverence at the Dasahra festival. Some Râjput Bhîls worship a deity

called Ghorâdeva or a stone horse; the Bhâtiyas worship a clay horse

at the Dasahra, and the Ojha Kumhârs erect a clay horse on the sixth

day after birth, and make the child worship it. Rag horses are offered

at the tombs of saints at Gujarât. The Kunbis wash their horses on

the day of the Dasahra, decorate them with flowers, sacrifice a sheep

to them, and sprinkle the blood on them. [561] The custom among the

Drâvidian races of offering clay horses to the local gods has been

already noticed. The Gonds have a horse godling in Kodapen, and at the

opening of the rainy season they worship a stone in his honour outside

the village. A Gond priest offers a pottery image of the animal and a

heifer, saying, "Thou art our guardian! Protect our oxen and cows! Let

us live in safety!" [562] The heifer is then sacrificed and the meat

eaten by the worshippers. The Devak or marriage guardian of some of

the Dakkhin tribes is a horse.

The Worship of the Ass.

The contempt for the ass seems to have arisen in post-Vedic

times. Indra had a swift-footed ass, and one of the epithets of

Vikramaditya was Gadharbha-rûpa, or "he in the form of an ass." The

Vishnu Purâna tells of the demon Dhenuka, who took the form of an

ass and began to kick Balarâma and Krishna, as they were plucking

fruit in the demon's grove. Balarâma seized him, with sundry of his

companions and flung him on the top of a palm tree. Khara, a cannibal

Râkshasa who was killed by Râma Chandra, also used to take the form of

an ass. Muhammad said, "The most ungrateful of all voices is surely the

voice of asses." Muhammadans believe that the last animal which entered

the ark was the ass to which Iblîs was clinging. At the threshold the

beast seemed troubled and could enter no farther, when Noah said unto

him, "Fie upon thee! Come in!" But as the ass was still in trouble

and did not advance, Noah cried, "Come in, though the Devil be with

thee!" So the ass entered, and with him Iblîs. Thereupon Noah asked,

"O enemy of Allah! Who brought thee into the ark?" And Iblîs answered,

"Thou art the man, for thou saidest to the ass, 'Come in, though the

Devil be with thee!'" [563]

The worship of the ass is chiefly associated with that of Sîtalâ, whose

vehicle he is. The Agarwâla sub-caste of Banyas have a curious rule of

making the bridegroom just before marriage mount an ass. This is done

in secret, and though said to be intended to propitiate the goddess

of small-pox, is possibly a survival of some primitive form of worship.

In folk-lore the ass constantly appears. We have in Somadeva the

fable of the ass in the panther's skin, which also appears in the

fifth book of the Panchatantra. Professor Weber asserts that it was

derived from the original in Æsop, but this is improbable, as it is

also found in the Buddhist Jâtakas. In one of the Kashmîr tales we

have the bird saying, "If any person will peel off the bark of my

tree, pound it, mix the powder with some of the juice of its leaves

and then work it into a ball, it will be found to work like a charm;

for any one who smells it will be turned into an ass." [564] We have

instances of ass transformation in Apuleius and Lucian, and in German

and other Western folk-tales.

The Lion.

The lion, from his comparative rarity in Northern India, appears

little in popular belief. It is one of the vehicles of Pârvatî,

and rude images of the animal are sometimes placed near shrines

dedicated to Devî. There is a current idea that only one pair of

lions exists in the world at the same time. They have two cubs, a

male and a female, which, when they arrive at maturity, devour their

parents. In the folk-tales the childless king is instructed that he

will find in the forest a boy riding on a lion, and this will be his

son. The lovely maiden in the legend of Jimutavâhana is met riding on

a lion. We have the lion Pingalika, king of beasts, with the jackal

as his minister, and in one of the cycle of tales in which the weak

animal overcomes the more powerful, the hare by his wisdom causes

the lion to drown himself. The basis of the famous tale of Androcles

is probably Buddhistic, but only a faint reference to it is found

in Somadeva. In one of the modern stories the soldier takes a thorn

out of the tiger's foot, and is rewarded with a box which contains

a manikin, who procures for him all he desires. [565]

The Tiger.

The tiger naturally takes the place of the lion. According to the

comparative mythologists, "the tiger, panther, and leopard possess

several of the mystical characteristics of the lion as the hidden

sun. Thus, Dionysos and Siva, the phallical god par excellence,

have these animals as their emblems." [566] Siva, it is true, is

represented as sitting in his ascetic form on a tiger skin, but it

is his consort, Durgâ, who uses the animal as her vehicle. Quite

apart from the solar myth theory, the belief that witches are changed

into tigers, and the terror inspired by him, are quite sufficient to

account for the honour bestowed upon him.

Much also of the worship of the tiger is probably of totemistic

origin. Thus the Baghel Râjputs claim descent, and from him (bâgh,

vyâghra, "the spotted one") derive their name. This tribe will not,

in Central India, destroy the animal. So, "no consideration will

induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger, except in self-defence, or

immediately after the tiger has destroyed a friend or a relation. When

a European has set traps for tigers, the people of the neighbourhood

have been known to go by night to the spot and explain to the tiger

that the traps were not set by them, nor with their consent." The Bhîls

and the Bajrâwat Râjputs of Râjputâna also claim tiger origin. [567]

Another idea appearing in tiger-worship is that he eats human flesh,

and thus obtains possession of the souls of the victims whom he

devours. For this reason a man-eating tiger is supposed to walk along

with his head bent, because the ghosts of his victims sit on it and

weigh it down. [568]

He is, again, often the disguise of a sorcerer of evil temper, an

idea similar to that which was the basis of the European dread of

lycanthropy and the were-wolf. "Accounts differ as to the way in which

the were-wolf was chosen. According to one account, a human victim

was sacrificed, one of his bowels was mixed with the bowels of animal

victims, the whole was consumed by the worshippers, and the man who

unwittingly ate the human bowel was changed into a wolf. According

to another account, lots were cast among the members of a particular

family, and he upon whom the lot fell was the were-wolf. Being led

to the brink of a tarn, he stripped himself, hung his clothes on an

oak tree, plunged into the tarn, and swimming across it, went into

desert places. There he was changed into a wolf, and herded with

wolves for nine years. If he tasted human blood before the nine years

were out he had to remain a wolf for ever. If during the nine years

he abstained from preying on men, then, when the tenth year came

round, he recovered his human shape. Similarly, there is a negro

family at the mouth of the Congo who are supposed to possess the

power of turning themselves into leopards in the gloomy depths of

the forest. As leopards, they knock people down, but do no further

harm, for they think that if, as leopards, they once lapped blood,

they would be leopards for ever." [569]

Hence in India the jungle people who are in the way of meeting him

will not pronounce his name, but speak of him as Gîdar, "the jackal,"

Jânwar, "the beast," or use some other euphemistic term. They do

the same in many cases with the wolf and bear, and though they

sometimes hesitate to kill the animal themselves, they will readily

assist sportsmen to destroy him, and make great rejoicings when he is

killed. A Shikâri will break off a branch on the road as he goes along,

and say, "As thy life has departed, so may the tiger die!" When he is

killed they will bring forward some spirits and pour it on the head of

the animal, addressing him, "Mahârâja! During your life you confined

yourself to cattle, and never injured your human subjects. Now that

you are dead, spare us and bless us!" In Akola the gardeners are

unwilling to inform the sportsmen of the whereabouts of a tiger or

panther which may have taken up its quarters in their plantation,

for they have a superstition that a garden plot loses its fertility

from the moment one of these animals is killed there. So, with the

Ainos of Japan, who when a bear is trapped or wounded by an arrow,

go through an apologetic or propitiatory ceremony. [570]

In Nepâl they have a regular festival in honour of the tiger known

as the Bâgh Jâtra, in which the worshippers used to dance in the

disguise of tigers.

Tiger-worship among the Jungle Races.

But, as is natural, the worship of the tiger prevails more widely

among the jungle races. We have already met with Bâgheswar, the tiger

deity of the Mirzapur forest tribes. The Santâls also worship him,

and the Kisâns honour him as Banrâja, or "lord of the jungle." They

will not kill him, and believe that in return for their devotion

he will spare them. Another branch of the tribe does not worship

him, but all swear by him. The Bhuiyârs, on the contrary, have no

veneration for him, and think it their interest to slay him whenever

they have an opportunity. The Juângs take their oaths on earth from

an ant-hill, and on a tiger's skin; the ant-hill is a sacred object

with the Khariyas, and the tiger skin is brought in when the Hos and

Santâls are sworn. Among the eastern Santâls, the tiger is worshipped,

but in Râmgarh only those who have suffered from the animal's ferocity

condescend to adore him. If a man is carried off by a tiger, the Bâgh

Bhût, or "Tiger ghost," is worshipped, and an oath on a tiger's skin

is considered most solemn. [571]

Bâgh Deo, the Tiger Godling.

Further west the Kurkus of Hoshangâbâd worship the tiger godling,

Bâgh Deo, who is the Wâgh Deo of Berâr. At Petri in Berâr is a sort

of altar to Wâghâî Devî, the tiger goddess, founded on a spot where a

Gond woman was once seized by a tiger. She is said to have vanished as

if by some supernatural agency, and the Gonds who desire protection

from wild beasts present to her altar gifts of every kind of animal

from a cow downwards. A Gond presides over the shrine and receives

the votive offerings.

In Hoshangâbâd the Bhomka is the priest of Bâgh Deo. "On him devolves

the dangerous duty of keeping tigers out of the boundaries. When a

tiger visits a village, the Bhomka repairs to Bâgh Deo, and makes his

offerings to the god, and promises to repeat them for so many years on

condition that the tiger does not appear for that time. The tiger, on

his part, never fails to fulfil the compact thus solemnly made by his

lord; for he is pre-eminently an upright and honourable beast--'pious

withal,' as Mandeville says, not faithless or treacherous like the

leopard, whom no compact can bind. Some Bhomkas, however, masters

of more powerful spell, are not obliged to rely on the traditional

honour of the tiger, but compel his attendance before Bâgh Deo; and

such a Bhomka has been seen, a very Daniel among tigers, muttering

his incantations over two or three at a time as they crouched before

him. Still more mysterious was the power of Kâlibhît Bhomka (now,

alas! no more). He died, the victim of misplaced confidence in a

Louis Napoleon of tigers, the basest and most bloodthirsty of his

race. He had a fine large Sâj tree into which, when he uttered his

spells, he would drive a nail. On this the tiger came and ratified the

contract with enormous paw manual. Such was that of Timûr the Lame,

when he dipped his mighty hand in blood and stamped its impression

on a parchment grant." [572]

In the same way in other parts of the Central Provinces the village

sorcerers profess to be able to call tigers from the jungles, to

seize them by the ears, and control their voracity by whispering to

them a command not to come near their villages, or they pretend to

know a particular kind of root, by burying which they can prevent

the beasts of the forest from devouring men or cattle. With the same

object they lay on the pathway small models of bedsteads and other

things which are supposed to act as charms and stop their advance.

Magical Powers of Dead Tigers.

All sorts of magical powers are ascribed to the tiger after death. The

fangs, the claws, the whiskers are potent charms, valuable for love

philters and prophylactics against demoniacal influence, the Evil Eye,

disease and death. The milk of a tigress is valuable medicine, and it

is one of the stock impossible tasks or tests imposed upon the hero

to find and fetch it, as he is sent to get the feathers of the eagle,

water from the well of death, or the mystical cow guarded by Dânos or

Râkshasas. [573] The fat is considered a valuable remedy for rheumatism

and similar maladies. The heart and flesh are tonics, stimulants and

aphrodisiacs, and give strength and courage to those who use them. The

Miris of Assam prize tiger's flesh as food for men; it gives them

strength and courage; but it is not suited for women, as it would

make them too strong-minded. [574] The whiskers are believed, among

other qualities which they possess, to be a slow poison when taken

with food, and the curious rudimentary clavicles, known as Santokh or

"happiness," are highly valued as amulets. There is a general belief

that a tiger gets a new lobe to his liver every year. A favourite

amulet to repel demoniacal influence consists of the whiskers of the

tiger or leopard mixed with nail parings, some sacred root or grass,

and red lead, and hung on the throat or upper arm. This treatment

is particularly valuable in the case of young children immediately

after birth. Tiger's flesh is also a potent medicine and charm, and

it is burnt in the cow-stall when cattle disease prevails. The flesh

of the tiger, or if that be not procurable, the flesh of the jackal

is burnt in the fields to keep off blight from the crops.

Tigers, Propitiation of.

Some tigers are supposed to be amenable to courtesy. In one of

the Kashmîr tales, the hero in search of tiger's milk shoots an

arrow and pierces one of the teats of the tigress, to whom he

explains that he hoped she would thus be able to suckle her cubs

with less trouble. In other tales we find the tiger pacified if

he is addressed as "Uncle." [575] So, Colonel Tod describes how a

tiger attacked a boy near his camp, and was supposed to have, like

the fierce Râkshasa of the Nepâl legend, released the child when he

was addressed as "Uncle." [576] "This Lord of the Black Rock, for

such is the designation of the tiger, is one of the most ancient

bourgeois of Morwan; his stronghold is Kâla Pahâr, between this

and Magawâr; and his reign during a long series of years has been

unmolested, notwithstanding numerous acts of aggression on his bovine

subjects. Indeed, only two nights before he was disturbed gorging on

a buffalo belonging to a poor oilman of Morwan. Whether the tiger

was an incarnation of one of the Mori lords of Morwan, tradition

does not say; but neither gun, bow, nor spear has ever been raised

against him. In return for this forbearance, it is said, he never

preyed on man; or if he seized one, would, on being entreated with

the endearing epithet of 'Uncle,' let go his hold." [577]

Tiger-worship among the Gonds.

Among the Gonds tiger-worship assumes a particularly disgusting

form. At marriages among them, a terrible apparition appears of two

demoniacs possessed by Bâgheswar, the tiger god. They fall ravenously

on a bleating kid, and gnaw it with their teeth till it expires. "The

manner," says Captain Samuells, who witnessed the performance,

"in which the two men seized the kid with their teeth and killed

it was a sight which could only be equalled on a feeding day in the

Zoological Gardens or a menagerie." [578]

Men Metamorphosed into Tigers.

The only visible difference between the ordinary animal and a man

metamorphosed into a tiger was explained to Colonel Sleeman to consist

in the fact that the latter had no tail. In the jungles about Deori

there is said to be a root, which if a man eats, he is converted

into a tiger on the spot; and if, when in this state, he eats another

species of root, he is turned back into a man again.

"A melancholy instance of this," said Colonel Sleeman's informant,

"occurred in my own father's family when I was an infant. His washerman

Raghu was, like all washermen, a great drunkard. Being seized with a

violent desire to ascertain what a man felt like in the state of a

tiger, he went one day to the jungle and brought back two of these

roots, and desired his wife to stand by with one of them, and the

instant she saw him assume the tiger's shape to thrust the root she

held into his mouth. She consented, and the washerman ate his root

and instantly became a tiger, whereupon she was so terrified that

she ran off with the antidote in her hand. Poor old Raghu took to the

woods, and there ate a good many of his friends from the neighbouring

villages; but he was at last shot, and recognized from his having

no tail. You may be quite sure when you hear of a tiger having no

tail that it is some unfortunate man who has eaten of that root,

and of all the tigers he will be found the most mischievous." [579]

This is a curious reversal of the ordinary theory regarding the tail

of the tiger, to which a murderous strength is attributed. A Hindu

proverb says that the hair of a tiger's tail may be the means of

losing one's life. This has been compared by Professor De Gubernatis

with the tiger Mantikora spoken of by Ktesias, which has on its tail

hairs which are darts thrown by it for the purpose of defence. [580]

A Nepâl legend describes how some children made a clay image of a

tiger, and thinking the figure incomplete without a tongue, went

to fetch a leaf to supply the defect. On their return they found

that Bhairava had entered the image and had begun to devour their

sheep. The image of Bâgh Bhairava and the deified children are still

to be seen at this place. We have the same legend in the Panchatantra

and the tales of Somadeva, where four Brâhmans resuscitate a tiger

and are devoured by it. [581]

We have many instances in the folk-tales of the tiger befooled. In

one of the tales told by the Mânjhis of Mirzapur the goat has kids

in the tiger's den, and when he arrives she makes her kids squall

and pretends that she wants some tiger's flesh for them. [582] In a

Panjâbi tale the farmer's wife rides up to the tiger calling out,

"I hope I may find a tiger in this field, for I have not tasted

tiger's flesh since the day before yesterday, when I killed three,"

whereupon the tiger runs away. The tale which tells how the jackal

succeeds in getting the tiger back into the cage and thus saves the

Brâhman is common in Indian folk-lore. [583]

Dog-worship.

In the Nepâl legend which we have been discussing we find Bhairava

associated with the tiger, but his prototype, the local godling

Bhairon, has the dog as his sacred animal, and his is the only temple

in Benares into which the dog is admitted. [584]

Two conflicting lines of thought seem to meet in dog-worship. As

Mr. Campbell says, "There is a good house-guarding dog, and an evil

scavenging and tomb-haunting dog. Some of the products of the dog

are so valued in driving off spirits that they seem to be a distinct

element in the feeling of respect shown to the dog. Still it seems

better to consider the dog as a man-eater, and to hold that, like

the tiger, this was the original reason why the dog was considered

a guardian." [585] It is perhaps in this connection that the dog is

associated with Yama, the god of death.

An ancient epithet of the dog is Kritajna, "he that is mindful

of favours," which is also a title of Siva. The most touching

episode of the Mahâbhârata is where Yudhisthira refuses to enter the

heaven of Indra without his favourite dog, which is really Yama in

disguise. These dogs of Yama probably correspond to the Orthros and

Kerberos of the Greeks, and Kerberos has been connected etymologically

with Sarvari, which is an epithet of the night, meaning originally

"dark" or "pale." [586] The same idea shows itself in the Pârsi

respect for the dog, which may be traced to the belief of the early

Persians. The dog's muzzle is placed near the mouth of the dying Pârsi

in order that it may receive his parting breath and bear it to the

waiting angel, and the destruction of a corpse by dogs is looked on

with no feeling of abhorrence. The same idea is found in Buddhism,

where on the early coins "the figure of a dog in connection with a

Buddhist Stûpa recalls to mind the use to which the animal was put in

the bleak highlands of Asia in the preferential form of sepulchre over

exposure to birds and wild beasts in the case of deceased monks or

persons of position in Tibet. Strange and horrible as it may seem to

us to be devoured by domestic dogs, trained and bred for the purpose,

it was the most honourable form of burial among Tibetans." [587]

The Kois of Central India hold in great respect the Pândava brethren

Arjuna and Bhîma. The wild dogs or Dhol are regarded as the Dûtas

or messengers of the heroes, and the long black beetles which appear

in large numbers at the beginning of the hot weather are called the

Pândavas' goats. None of them will on any account interfere with

these divine dogs, even when they attack their cattle. [588]

Dog-worship: Bhairon.

In modern times dog-worship appears specially in connection with the

cultus of Bhairon, the Brâhmanical Bhairava, the Bhairoba of Western

India. No Marâtha will lift his hand against a dog, and in Bombay

many Hindus worship the dog of Kâla Bhairava, though the animal is

considered unclean by them. Khandê Râo or Khandoba or Khandoji is

regarded as an incarnation of Siva and much worshipped by Marâthas. He

is most frequently represented as riding on horseback and attended by a

dog and accompanied by his wife Malsurâ, another form of Pârvatî. His

name is usually derived from the Khanda or sword which he carries,

but Professor Oppert without much probability would connect it with

that of the aboriginal Khândhs who are supposed to have been original

settlers in Khândesh, after whom it was called. [589] In many temples

of Bhaironnâth, as at Benares and Hardwâr, he is depicted on the

wall in a deep blue colour approaching to black, and behind him

is the figure of the dog on which he rides. Sweetmeat sellers make

little images of a dog in sugar, which are presented to the deity as

an offering.

At Lohâru, in the Panjâb, a common-looking grave is much respected

by the Hindus. It is said to contain the remains of a dog formerly

possessed by the chief of the victorious Thâkurs, which is credited

with having done noble service in battle, springing up and seizing

the wounded warriors' throats, many of whom it slew. Finally it was

killed and buried on the spot with beat of drum, and has since been an

object of worship and homage. "Were it not," says General Cunningham,

"for the Sagparast of Naishapur, mentioned in Khusru's charming Darvesh

tales, this example of dog-worship would probably be unique." [590]

This is, it is hardly necessary to say, a mistake.

Thus, close to Bulandshahr, there is a grove with four tombs, which

are said to be the resting-place of three holy men and their favourite

dog, which died when the last of the saints departed this life. They

were buried together, and their tombs are held in much respect by

Muhammadans. [591]

In Pûna, Dattâtreya is guarded by four dogs which are said to stand

for the four Vedas, and at Jejuri and Nâgpur children are dedicated

to the dogs of Khandê Râo. The Ghisâdis, on the seventh day after a

birth, go and worship water, and on coming back rub their feet on a

dog. At Dharwâr, on the fair day of the Dasahra at Malahâri's temple,

the Vâggayya ministrants dress in blue woollen coats and meet with bell

and skins tied round their middles, the pilgrims barking and howling

like dogs. Each Vâggayya has a wooden bowl into which the pilgrims

put milk and plantains. Then the Vâggayyas lay down the bowls, fight

with each other like dogs, and putting their mouths into the bowls,

eat the contents. [592] In Nepâl, there is a festival, known as

the Khichâ Pûjâ, in which worship is done to dogs, and garlands of

flowers are placed round the neck of every dog in the country. [593]

Among the Gonds, if a dog dies or is born, the family has to undergo

purification. [594]

Dogs in Folk-lore: The Bethgelert Legend.

The famous tale of Bethgelert, the faithful hound which saves the

child of his master from the wolf and is killed by mistake, appears

all through the folk-tales and was probably derived from India. In the

Indian version the dog usually belongs to a Banya or to a Banjâra,

who mortgages him to a merchant. The merchant is robbed and the dog

discovers the stolen goods. In his gratitude the merchant ties round

the neck of the dog a scrap of paper, on which he records that the

debt has been satisfied. The dog returns to his original master,

who upbraids him for deserting his post, and, without looking at the

paper, kills him, only to be overcome by remorse when he learns the

honesty of the faithful beast. This famous tale is told at Haidarâbâd,

Lucknow, Sîtapur, Mirzapur, and Kashmîr. In its more usual form, as

in the Panchatantra and the collection of Somadeva, the mungoose takes

the place of the dog and kills the cobra on the baby's cradle. [595]

Throughout folk-lore the dog is associated with the spirits of the

dead, as we have seen to be the case with Syâma, "the black one," and

Sabala or Karvara, the "spotted ones," the attendants of Yama. [596]

Hence the dog is regarded as the guardian of the household, which

they protect from evil spirits. According to Aubrey, [597] "all

over England a spayed bitch is accounted wholesome in a house; that

is to say they have a strong belief that it keeps away evil spirits

from haunting of a house." As in the Odyssey, the two swift hounds of

Telemachus bear him company and recognize Athene when she is invisible

to others, and the dogs of Virgil howl when the goddess approaches,

so the Muhammadans believe that dogs recognize Azraîl, the angel of

death, and in Northern India it is supposed that dogs have the power

of seeing spirits, and when they see one they howl. In Shakespeare

King Henry says:--

"The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;

The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;

Dogs howled and hideous tempests shook down trees."

Hence in all countries the howling of dogs in the vicinity of a house

is an omen of approaching misfortune.

The respect for the dog is well shown in the case of the Bauris of

Bengal, who will on no account kill a dog or touch its body, and the

water of a tank in which a dog has been drowned cannot be used until

an entire rainy season has washed the impurity away. They allege

that as they kill cows and most other animals, they deem it right

to fix on some beast which should be as sacred to them as the cow to

the Brâhman, and they selected the dog because it was a useful animal

when alive and not very nice to eat when dead, "a neat reconciliation

of the twinges of conscience and cravings of appetite." [598]

Various omens are in the Panjâb drawn from dogs. When out hunting,

if they lie on their backs and roll, as they generally do when they

find a tuft of grass or soft ground, it shows that plenty of game

will be found. If a dog lies quietly on his back in the house, it

is a bad omen, for the superstition runs that the dog is addressing

heaven for support, and that some calamity is bound to happen. [599]

We have seen already that some of the Central Indian tribes respect the

wild dog. The same is the case in the Hills, where they are known as

"God's hounds," and no native sportsman will kill them. [600] In one

of Grimm's tales we read that the "Lord God had created all animals,

and had chosen out the wolf to be his dog," and the dogs of Odin were

wolves. [601] Another sacred dog in Indian folk-lore is that of the

hunter Shambuka. His master threw him into the sacred pool of Uradh

in the Himâlaya. Coming out dripping, he shook some of the water

on his owner, and such was the virtue of even this partial ablution

that on their death both hunter and dog were summoned to the heaven

of Siva. [602]

All over Northern India the belief in the curative power of the tongue

of the dog widely prevails. In Ireland they say that a dried tongue

of a fox will draw out thorns, however deep they be, and an old late

Latin verse says:--

In cane bis bina sunt, et lingua medicina

Naris odoratus, amor intiger, atque latratus. [603]

Among Musalmâns the dog is impure. The vessel it drinks from must be

washed seven times and scrubbed with earth. The Qurân directs that

before a dog is slipped in chase of game, the sportsman should call

out, "In the name of God, the great God!" Then all game seized by

him becomes lawful food.

The Goat.

The goat is another animal to which mystic powers are attributed. In

the mythology of the West he is associated with Dionysos, Pan, and

the Satyr. In England it is commonly believed that he is never seen

for twenty-four hours together, and that once in this space he pays

a visit to the Devil to have his beard combed. [604] The Devil, they

say, sometimes appears in this form, which accounts for his horns

and tail. The wild goat was associated with the worship of Artemis,

the Arab unmarried goddess. [605] In the Râmâyana, Agamukhî, or

"goat's face," is the witch who wishes Sîtâ to be torn to pieces.

Mr. Conway asks whether this idea about the goat is due to the smell

of the animal, its butting and injury to plants, or was it demonized

merely because of its uncanny and shaggy appearance? [606] Probably

the chief reason is because it has a curious habit of occasionally

shivering, which is regarded as caused by some indwelling spirit. The

Thags in their sacrifice used to select two goats, black, and perfect

in all their parts. They were bathed and made to face the west, and if

they shook themselves and threw the water off their hair, they were

regarded as a sacrifice acceptable to Devî. Hence in India a goat

is led along a disputed boundary, and the place where it shivers is

regarded as the proper line. Plutarch says that the Greeks would not

sacrifice a goat if it did not shiver when water was thrown over it.

In the Panjâb it is believed that when a goat kills a snake it eats it

and then ruminates, after which it spits out a Manka or bead, which,

when applied to a snake-bite, absorbs the poison and swells. If it be

then put in milk and squeezed, the poison drips out of it like blood,

and the patient is cured. If it is not put in milk, it will burst to

pieces. [607] It hence resembles the Ovum Anguinum, or Druid's Egg,

to which reference has been already made. [608] If a person suffers

from spleen, they take the spleen of a he-goat, if the patient be a

male; or of a she-goat, if the patient be a female. It is rubbed on

the region of the spleen seven times on a Sunday or Tuesday, pierced

with acacia thorns and hung on a tree. As the goat's spleen dries,

the spleen of the patient reduces.

The horn is regarded as somehow most closely connected with the

brain. So, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," Mrs. Quickly says:

"If he had found the young man, he would have been horn mad," and

Horace gives the advice, "Fenum habet in cornu longe fuge." Martial

describes how in his time the Roman shrines were covered with horns,

Dissimulatque deum cornibus ora frequens. [609]

It is for this reason that the local shrines in the Himâlaya are

decorated with horns of the wild sheep, ibex, and goat. In Persia many

houses are adorned with rams' heads fixed to the corners near the roof,

which are to protect the building from misfortune. In Bilochistân and

Afghanistân it is customary to place the horns of the wild goat and

sheep on the walls of forts and mosques. [610] Akbar covered his Kos

Minars or mile-stones with the horns of the deer he had killed. The

conical support of the Banjâra woman's head-dress was originally

a horn, and many classes of Faqîrs tie a piece of horn round their

necks. We have the well-known horn of plenty, and it is very common

in the folk-tales to find objects taken out of the ears or horns of

the helpful animals. [611]

Goat and Totemism.

We perhaps get a glimpse of totemism in connection with the goat in

some of the early Hindu legends. When Parusha, the primeval man,

was divided into his male and female parts, he produced all the

animals, and the goat was first formed out of his mouth. There is,

again, a mystical connection between Agni, the fire god, Brâhmans,

and goats, as between Indra, the Kshatriyas, and sheep, Vaisyas and

kine, Sûdras and the horse. These may possibly have been tribal totems

of the races by whom these animals were venerated. [612] The sheep,

as we have already seen, is a totem of the Keriyas. The Aheriyas,

a vagrant tribe of the North-Western Provinces, worship Mekhasura or

Meshasura in the form of a ram.

Cow and Bull Worship.

But the most famous of these animal totems or fetishes is the cow or

bull. According to the school of comparative mythology the bull which

bore away Europe from Kadmos is the same from which the dawn flies

in the Vedic hymn. He, according to this theory, is "the bull Indra,

which, like the sun, traverses the heaven, bearing the dawn from

east to west. But the Cretan bull, like his fellow in the Gnossian

labyrinth, who devours the tribute children from the city of the Dawn

goddess, is a dark and malignant monster, akin to the throttling snake

who represents the powers of night and darkness." [613] This may be

so, but the identification of primitive religion, in all its varied

phases, with the sun or other physical phenomena is open to the obvious

objection that it limits the ideas of the early Aryans to the weather

and their dairies, and antedates the regard for the cow to a period

when the animal was held in much less reverence than it is at present.

Respect for the Cow Modern.

That the respect for the cow is of comparatively modern date is best

established on the authority of a writer, himself a Hindu. "Animal

food was in use in the Epic period, and the cow and bull were often

laid under requisition. In the Aitareya Brâhmana, we learn that an

ox, or a cow which suffers miscarriage, is killed when a king or

honoured guest is received. In the Brâhmana of the Black Yajur Veda

the kind and character of the cattle which should be slaughtered in

minor sacrifices for the gratification of particular divinities are

laid down in detail. Thus a dwarf one is to be sacrificed to Vishnu,

a drooping-horned bull to Indra, a thick-legged cow to Vâyu, a barren

cow to Vishnu and Varuna, a black cow to Pûshan, a cow having two

colours to Mitra and Varuna, a red cow to Indra, and so on. In a larger

and more important ceremonial, like the Aswamedha, no less than one

hundred and eighty domestic animals, including horses, bulls, goats,

sheep, deer, etc., were sacrificed.

"The same Brâhmana lays down instructions for carving, and the

Gopatha Brâhmana tells us who received the portions. The priests

got the tongue, the neck, the shoulder, the rump, the legs, etc.,

while the master of the house wisely appropriated to himself the

sirloin, and his wife had to be satisfied with the pelvis. Plentiful

libations of Soma beer were to be allowed to wash down the meat. In

the Satapatha Brâhmana we have a detailed account of the slaughter

of a barren cow and its cooking. In the same Brâhmana there is an

amusing discussion as to the propriety of eating the meat of an ox

or cow. The conclusion is not very definite. 'Let him (the priest)

not eat the flesh of the cow and the ox.' Nevertheless Yajnavalkya

said (taking apparently a very practical view of the matter), 'I,

for one, eat it, provided it is tender.'" [614]

The evidence that cows were freely slaughtered in ancient times could

be largely extended. It is laid down in the early laws that the meat

of milch cows and oxen may be eaten, and a guest is called a Goghna or

"cow-killer," because a cow was killed for his entertainment. [615]

In the Grihya Sûtra we have a description of the sacrifice of an ox to

Kshetrapati, "the lord of the fields." In another ancient ritual the

sacrifice of a cow is stated to be very similar to that of the Satî,

and, according to an early legend, kine were created from Parusha,

the primal male, and are to be eaten as they were formed from the

receptacle of food. [616]

It need hardly be said that the worship of the cow is not peculiar

to India, but prevails widely in various parts of the world. [617]

Origin of Cow-worship.

The explanation of the origin of cow-worship has been a subject of

much controversy. The modern Hindu, if he has formed any distinct

ideas at all on the subject, bases his respect for the cow on her

value for supplying milk, and for general agricultural purposes. The

Panchagâvya, or five products of the cow--milk, curds, butter, urine,

and dung--are efficacious as scarers of demons, are used as remedies in

disease, and play a very important part in domestic ritual Gaurochana,

a bright yellow pigment prepared from the urine or bile of the cow,

or, as is said by some, vomited by her or found in her head, is

used for making the sectarial mark, and as a sedative, tonic, and

anthelmintic. In Bombay it is specially used as a remedy for measles,

which is considered to be a spirit disease. [618]

There is, again, something to be said for the theory which finds in

these animals tribal totems and fetishes. [619] We have a parallel

case among the Jews, where the bull was probably the ancient symbol of

the Hyksos, which the Israelites having succeeded them could adopt,

especially as it may have been retained in use by their confederates

the Midianites; and it appears in the earliest annals of Israel as

a token of the former supremacy of Joseph and his tribe, and was

subsequently adopted as an image of Iahveh himself.

So, speaking of Egypt, Mr. Frazer writes: "Osiris was regularly

identified with the bull Apis of Memphis and the bull Mnevis of

Heliopolis. But it is hard to say whether these bulls were embodiments

of him as the corn spirit, as the red oxen appear to have been, or

whether they were not entirely distinct deities which got fused with

Osiris by syncretism. The fact that these two bulls were worshipped

by all the Egyptians, seems to put them on a different footing from

the ordinary sacred animals, whose cults were purely local. Hence,

if the latter were evolved from totems, as they probably were, some

other origin would have to be found for the worship of Apis and

Mnevis. If these bulls were not originally embodiments of the corn

god Osiris, they may possibly be descendants of the sacred cattle

worshipped by a pastoral people. If this were so, ancient Egypt

would exhibit a stratification of the three great types of religion

corresponding to the three great stages of society. Totemism or

(roughly speaking) the worship of wild animals--the religion of

society in the hunting stage--would be represented by the worship

of the local sacred animals; the worship of cattle--the religion of

society in the pastoral stage--would be represented by the cults of

Apis and Mnevis; and the worship of cultivated plants, especially

of corn--the religion of society in the agricultural stage--would be

represented by the worship of Osiris and Isis. The Egyptian reverence

for cows, which were never killed, might belong either to the second

or third of these stages." [620]

There is some evidence that the same process of religious development

may have taken place in India. It is at least significant that the

earlier legends represent Indra as created from a cow; and we know that

Indra was the Kuladevatâ or family godling of the race of the Kusikas,

as Krishna was probably the clan deity of some powerful confederation

of Râjput tribes. Cow-worship is thus closely connected with Indra and

with Krishna in his forms as the "herdman god," Govinda or Gopâla;

and it is at least plausible to conjecture that the worship of the

cow may have been due to the absorption of the animal as a tribal

totem of the two races, who venerated these two divinities.

Further, the phallic significance of the worship, in its modern form

at least, and its connection with fertility cannot be altogether

ignored. [621] This is particularly shown in the close connection

between Siva's bull Nandi and the Lingam worship; and there seems

reason to suspect that the bull is intended to intercept the evil

influences which in the popular belief are continually emitted from

the female principle through the Yonî. As we have already seen, the

dread of this form of pollution is universal. Hence when the Lingam

is set up in a new village the people are careful in turning the spout

of the Yonî towards the jungle, and not in the direction of the roads

and houses, lest its evil influence should be communicated to them; and

in order still further to secure this object, the bull Nandi is placed

sitting as a guardian between the Yonî and the inhabited site. [622]

Cow-worship assumes another form in connection with the theory of

transmigration. It has become part of the theory that the soul migrates

into the cow immediately preceding its assumption of the human form,

and she escorts the soul across the dreaded river Vaitaranî, which

bounds the lower world.

Cow-worship: Its Later Development.

Though cow-worship was little known in the Vedic period, by the time

of the compilation of the Institutes of Manu it had become part of the

popular belief. He classes the slaughter of a cow or bull among the

deadly sins; "the preserver of a cow or a Brâhman atones for the crime

of killing a priest;" [623] and we find constant references in the

mediæval folk-lore to the impiety of the Savaras and other Drâvidian

races who killed and ate the sacred animal. Saktideva one day,

"as he was standing on the roof of his palace, saw a Chandâla coming

along with a load of cow's flesh, and said to his beloved Vindumatî:

'Look, slender one! How can the evil-doer eat the flesh of cows, that

are the object of veneration to the three worlds?' Then Vindumatî,

hearing that, said to her husband: 'The wickedness of this act is

inconceivable; what can we say in palliation of it? I have been born

in this race of fishermen for a very small offence owing to the might

of cows. But what can atone for this man's sin?'" [624]

Re-birth through the Cow.

When the horoscope forebodes some crime or special calamity, the

child is clothed in scarlet, a colour which repels evil influences,

and tied on the back of a new sieve, which, as we have seen, is a

powerful fetish. This is passed through the hindlegs of a cow, forward

through the forelegs towards the mouth, and again in the reverse

direction, signifying the new birth from the sacred animal. The usual

worship and aspersion take place, and the father smells his child,

as the cow smells her calf. This rite is known as the Hiranyagarbha,

and not long since the Mahârâja of Travancore was passed in this way

through a cow of gold. [625]

The same idea is illustrated in the legend of the Pushkar Lake, which

probably represents a case of that fusion of races which undoubtedly

occurred in ancient times. The story runs that Brahma proposed to

do worship there, but was perplexed where he should perform the

sacrifice, as he had no temple on earth like the other gods. So he

collected all the other gods, but the sacrifice could not proceed as

Savitrî alone was absent; and she refused to come without Lakshmî,

Pârvatî, and Indrânî. On hearing of her refusal, Brahma was wroth,

and said to Indra: "Search me out a girl that I may marry her and

commence the sacrifice, for the jar of ambrosia weighs heavy on my

head." Accordingly Indra went and found none but a Gûjar's daughter,

whom he purified, and passing her through the body of a cow,

brought her to Brahma, telling him what he had done. Vishnu said:

"Brâhmans and cows are really identical; you have taken her from the

womb of a cow, and this may be considered a second birth." Siva said:

"As she has passed through a cow, she shall be called Gâyatrî." The

Brâhmans agreed that the sacrifice might now proceed; and Brahma

having married Gâyatrî, and having enjoined silence upon her, placed

on her head the jar of ambrosia and the sacrifice was performed. [626]

Respect Paid to the Cow.

The respect paid to the cow appears everywhere in folk-lore. We have

the cow Kâmadhenû, known also as Kâmadughâ or Kâmaduh, the cow of

plenty, Savalâ, "the spotted one," and Surabhî, "the fragrant one,"

which grants all desires. Among many of the lower castes the cow-shed

becomes the family temple. [627] In the old ritual, the bride, on

entering her husband's house, was placed on a red bull's hide as a

sign that she was received into the tribe, and in the Soma sacrifice

the stones whence the liquor was produced were laid on the hide of

a bull. When a disputed boundary is under settlement, a cow skin is

placed over the head and shoulders of the arbitrator, who is thus

imbued with the divine influence, and gives a just decision. It is

curious that until quite recently there was a custom in the Hebrides of

sewing up a man in the hide of a bull, and leaving him for the night

on a hill-top, that he might become a spirit medium. [628] The pious

Hindu touches the cow's tail at the moment of dissolution, and by her

aid he is carried across the dread river of death. I have more than

once seen a criminal ascend the scaffold with the utmost composure

when he was allowed to grasp a cow's tail before the hangman did

his office. The tail of the cow is also used in the marriage ritual,

and the tail of the wild cow, though nowadays only used by grooms,

was once the symbol of power, and waved over the ruler to protect

him from evil spirits. Quite recently I found that one of the chief

Brâhman priests at the sacred pool of Hardwâr keeps a wild cow's tail

to wave over his clients, and scare demons from them when they are

bathing in the Brahma Kund or sacred pool.

The Hill legend tells how Siva once manifested himself in his fiery

form, and Vishnu and Brahma went in various directions to see how

far the light extended. On their return Vishnu declared that he had

been unable to find out how far the light prevailed; but Brahma said

that he had gone beyond its limits. Vishnu then called on Kâmadhenû,

the celestial cow, to bear testimony, and she corroborated Brahma with

her tongue, but she shook her tail by way of denying the statement. So

Vishnu cursed her that her mouth should be impure, but that her tail

should be held holy for ever. [629]

Modern Cow-worship.

There are numerous instances of modern cow-worship. The Jâts and

Gûjars adore her under the title of Gâû Mâtâ, "Mother cow." The

cattle are decorated and supplied with special food on the Gopashtamî

or Gokulashtamî festival, which is held in connection with the

Krishna cultus. In Nepâl there is a Newâri festival, known as the

Gâê Jâtra, or cow feast, when all persons who have lost relations

during the year ought to disguise themselves as cows and dance round

the palace of the king. [630] In many of the Central Indian States,

about the time of the Diwâlî, the Maun Charâûn, or silent tending

of cattle, is performed. The celebrants rise at daybreak, wash and

bathe, anoint their bodies with oil, and hang garlands of flowers

round their necks. All this time they remain silent and communicate

their wants by signs. When all is ready they go to the pasture in

procession in perfect silence. Each of them holds a peacock's feather

over his shoulder to scare demons. They remain in silence with the

cattle for an hour or two, and then return home. This is followed

by an entertainment of wrestling among the Ahîrs or cowherds. When

night has come, a gun is fired, and the Mahârâja breaks his fast and

speaks. The rite is said to be in commemoration of Krishna feeding

the cows in the pastures of the land of Braj. [631]

During an eclipse, the cow, if in calf, is rubbed on the horns and

belly with red ochre to repel the evil influence, and prevent the

calf being born blemished. Cattle are not worked on the Amâvas or

Ides of the month. There are many devices, such as burning tiger's

flesh, and similar prophylactics, in the cow-house to drive away

the demon of disease. So, on New Year's Day the Highlander used to

fumigate his cattle shed with the smoke of juniper. [632] Cow hair is

regarded as an amulet against disease and danger, in the same way as

the hair of the yak was valued by the people of Central Asia in the

time of Marco Polo. [633] An ox with a fleshy excrescence on his eye

is regarded as sacred, and is known as Nadiya or Nandi, "the happy

one," the title of the bull of Siva. He is not used for agriculture,

but given to a Jogi, who covers him with cowry shells, and carries

him about on begging excursions. One of the most unpleasant sights at

the great bathing fairs, such as those of Prayâg or Hardwâr, is the

malformed cows and oxen which beggars of this class carry about and

exhibit. The Gonds kill a cow at a funeral, and hang the tail on the

grave as a sign that the ceremonies have been duly performed. [634]

The Kurkus sprinkle the blood of a cow on the grave, and believe

that if this be not done the spirit of the departed refuses to rest,

and returns upon earth to haunt the survivors. [635] The Vrishotsarga

practised by Hindus on the eleventh day after death, when a bull calf

is branded and let loose in the name of deceased, is apparently an

attempt to shift on the animal the burden of the sins of the dead man,

if it be not a survival of an actual sacrifice.

Feeling against Cow-killing.

Of the unhappy agitation against cow-killing, which has been in recent

years such a serious problem to the British Government in Northern

India, nothing further can be said here. To the orthodox Hindu,

killing a cow, even accidentally, is a serious matter, and involves

the feeding of Brâhmans and the performance of pilgrimages. In the

Hills a special ritual is prescribed in the event of a plough ox

being killed by accident. [636] The idea that misfortune follows the

killing of a cow is common. It used to be said that storms arose on

the Pîr Panjâl Pass in Kashmîr if a cow was killed. [637]

General Sleeman gives a case at Sâgar, where an epidemic was attributed

to the practice of cattle slaughter, and a popular movement arose

for its suppression. [638] Sindhia offered Sir John Malcolm in

1802 an additional cession of territory if he would introduce an

article into the Treaty with the British Government prohibiting the

slaughter of cows within the territory he had been already compelled

to abandon. The Emperor Akbar ordered that cattle should not be killed

during the Pachûsar, or twelve sacred days observed by the Jainas;

Sir John Malcolm gives a copy of the original Firmân. [639] Cow-killing

is to this day prohibited in orthodox Hindu States, like Nepâl.

Bull-worship among Banjâras.

There is a good example of bull-worship among the wandering tribe of

Banjâras. "When sickness occurs, they lead the sick man to the foot

of the bullock called Hatâdiya; for though they say that they pay

reverence to images, and that their religion is that of the Sikhs,

the object of their worship is this Hatâdiya, a bullock devoted

to the god Bâlajî. On this animal no burden is ever laid, but he

is decorated with streamers of red-dyed silk and tinkling bells,

with many brass chains and rings on neck and feet, and strings of

cowry shells and silken tassels hanging in all directions. He moves

steadily at the head of the convoy, and the place he lies down on

when tired, that they make their halting-place for the day. At his

feet they make their vows when difficulties overtake them, and in

illness, whether of themselves or cattle, they trust to his worship

for a cure." The respect paid by Banjâras to cattle seems, however,

to be diminishing. Once upon a time they would never sell cattle to

a butcher, but nowadays it is an every-day occurrence. [640]

Superstitions about Cattle.

Infinite are the superstitions about cattle, their marks, and every

kind of peculiarity connected with them, and this has been embodied

in a great mass of rural rhymes and proverbs which are always on the

lips of the people. Thus, for instance, it is unlucky for a cow to

calve in the month of Bhâdon. The remedy is to swim it in a stream,

sell it to a Muhammadan, or in the last resort give it away to a

Gujarâti Brâhman. Here may be noticed the curious prejudice against

the use of a cow's milk, which prevails among some tribes such as

the Hos and some of the aboriginal tribes of Bengal. The latter use

a species of wild cattle, the Mithun, for milking purposes, but will

not touch the milk of the ordinary cow. [641]

The Buffalo.

The respect paid to the cow does not fully extend to the buffalo. The

buffalo is the vehicle of Yama, the god of death. The female buffalo

is in Western India regarded as the incarnation of Savitrî, wife of

Brahma, the Creator. Durgâ or Bhavânî killed the buffalo-shaped Asura

Mahisa, Mahisâsura, after whom Maisûr is called. According to the

legend as told in the Mârkandeya Purâna, Ditî, having lost all her

sons, the Asuras, in the fight with the gods, turned herself into

a buffalo in order to annihilate them. She underwent such terrible

austerities to propitiate Brahma, that the whole world was shaken and

the saint Suparsva disturbed at his devotions. He cursed Ditî that her

son should be in the shape of a buffalo, but Brahma so far mitigated

the curse that only his head was to be that of a buffalo. This was

Mahisâsura, who ill-treated the gods, until they appealed to Vishnu

and Siva, who jointly produced a lovely representation of a Bhavânî,

the Mahisâsurmardanî, who slew the monster. This Mahisâsura is supposed

to be the origin of the godling Mahasoba, worshipped in Western India

in the form of a rude stone covered with red lead.

Another of these buffalo demons is Dundubhi, "he that roars like the

sound of the kettle-drum," who in the Râmâyana bursts with his horns

the cavern of Bali, son of Indra and king of monkeys. Bali seized him

by the horns and dashed him to pieces. The comparative mythologists

regard him as one of the forms of the cloud monster the sun. [642]

Sadasiva, one of the forms of Mahâdeva, took the form of a buffalo to

escape the Pândavas, and sank into the ground at Kedârnâth. The upper

portion of his body is said to have come to the surface at Mukhâr

Bind in Nepâl, where he is worshipped as Pasupatinâtha. When the

Pândavas were freed from their guilt, they in their gratitude built

five temples in honour of the hinder parts of the deity, which are

now known as the Pânch Kedâr-Kedarnâth, Madhya Maheswar, Rudranâth,

Tungunâth, and Kalpeswar.

The buffalo is constantly sacrificed at shrines in honour of Durgâ

Devî. The Toda worship of the buffalo is familiar to all students of

Indian ethnology.

The Antelope.

The black buck was in all probability the tribal totem of some of the

races occupying the country anciently known as Âryâvarta. Mr. Campbell

accounts for the respect paid to the animal by the use of hartshorn as

a remedy for faintness, swoons, and nervous disorders. [643] But this

hardly explains the respect paid to it, and the use of its dung by the

Bengal Parhaiyas instead of cowdung to smear their floors looks as

if it were based on totemism. [644] This too is shown by the regard

paid its skin. As Mr. Frazer has proved, it is a custom among many

savage tribes to retain the skin as an image of the deity which the

animal represented. [645] Hence according to the old ritual, the skin

of the antelope was the prescribed dress of the student of theology,

and it is still the seat of the ascetic. [646]

The antelope constantly appears in the folk-tales as a sort of Deus

ex machinâ, which leads the hero astray in the chase and brings

him to the home of the ogress or the ensorcelled maiden. [647]

In the Mahâbhârata, the King Parîkshit is led astray by a gazelle,

and King Pându dies when he meets his wife Madrî, because he had

once killed under similar circumstances a gazelle with his mate. In

the Vishnu Purâna, Bharata loses the fruits of his austerities by

becoming enamoured of a fawn. These fairy hinds appear throughout

the whole range of folk-lore. A Nepâlese legend tells how the three

gods Vishnu, Siva, and Brahma once appeared in the form of deer,

whence the place where they were seen is known as Mrigasthali. [648]

The Elephant.

The elephant naturally claims worship as the type of strength and

wisdom. To the rustic he impersonates Ganesa, the god of wisdom, the

remover of obstacles, who is propitiated at the commencement of any

important enterprise, such as marriage and the like. Many legends are

told to account for his elephant head. One tells how his mother Pârvatî

was so proud of her baby that she asked Sani to look at him, forgetting

the baneful effects of the look of the ill-omened deity. When he looked

at the child its head was burned to ashes, and Brahma, to console her,

told her to fix on the first head she could find, which happened to

be that of the elephant. By another account she put Ganesa to guard

the door while she was bathing, and when he refused to allow Siva to

enter, the angry god cut off his head, which was afterwards replaced

by that of the elephant. Again, one of his tusks was broken off by

Parasurâma with the axe which Siva, father of Ganesa, had given him.

Again, there are the Lokapâlas, the eight supporters of the

world. These eight pairs of elephants support the earth. Indra with

Airâvata and Abhramu support the east; Agni with Pundarîka and Kapilâ

the south-east; Yama with Vâmana and Pingalâ the south; Sûrya with

Kumuda and Anupamâ the south-west; Varuna with Anjana and Anjanavatî

the west; Vâyu with Pushpadanta and Subhadantî the north-west;

Kuvera on the north with Sarvabhauma, and Soma on the north-east with

Supratîka. As usual, there are differences in the enumeration.

From these all the modern elephants are descended. As Abul Fazl writes:

"When occasion arises people read incantations in their names and

address them in worship. They also think that every elephant in the

world is offspring of one of them. Thus, elephants of a white skin and

white hairs are related to the first, and elephants with a large head

and long ears, of a fierce and bold temper, and eyelids far apart,

belong to the second. Such as are good-looking, black, and high in

the back, are the offspring of the third. If tall, ungovernable,

quick in understanding, short-haired, and with red and black eyes,

they come from the fourth. If bright black, with one tusk longer than

the other, with a white breast and belly, and long and thick forefeet,

from the fifth. If fearful, with prominent veins, a short hump and

ears, and a long trunk, from the sixth. If thin-bellied, red-eyed,

and with a long trunk, from the seventh. And if of a combination of

the preceding seven qualities, from the eighth." [649]

Through India the reverence for the white elephant of Burma and Siam

has arisen. The figure of the elephant appears on some of the pillars

of Asoka. There is an elephant gate at Fatehpur Sîkri, one of the

King Huvishka at Mathura, and another connected with the dynasty

of Kanauj at Dabhâon in the Azamgarh District. Delhi contains the

remarkable elephant statues, believed by General Cunningham to have

been erected in honour of Jaymal and Patta, the two Râjput heroes

who defended the Fort of Chithor against Akbar. [650]

The elephant constantly occurs in folk-lore. In the projection of

its forehead it possesses a pearl, known as the Kunjara Mani, or Gaja

Mukta, which is invested with magical qualities. In the folk-tales the

wooden horse of Troy is represented by an artificial elephant filled

with soldiers; other elephants have the power of flying through

the air; in other stories, as in one of La Fontaine's fables, an

elephant selects a king by raising him up with his trunk; the elephant

Kuvalyapîda is the guardian of a kingdom, and touching an elephant

is one of the tests of a woman's chastity. We have also numerous

instances of the metamorphosis of human beings into elephants. [651]

The hair of the elephant's tail is in high repute as an amulet, and

little village children, when an elephant passes, pat the dust where

his feet have rested and sing a song, of which one version is--

Hâthi hâthi, bâr dé

Sone kî tarwâr dé--

"Give us a hair, elephant, like a sword of gold."

In Europe, it may be noted, the hair from the tail of a horse is

commonly regarded as a cure for wens. [652]

In the Fatehpur District there is an elephant turned into stone. The

famous Jaychand of Kanauj, it is said, as in the Carthage legend,

offered to Parâsara Rishi as many villages as an elephant could walk

round. It traversed an enormous extent of country, and finally halted

at Irâdatnagar, where it was turned into stone, and once a year an

enormous fair is held in its honour. [653]

The Cat.

The cat is everywhere invested with demoniac qualities, and is the

companion of the witch. In "Macbeth" the first witch says, "Thrice

the brinded cat has mewed." Among Muhammadans the cat is a pure

animal, and to kill a cat is very unlucky, and brings on trouble and

sickness. So, among Hindus, the killing of a cat can be expiated only

by the performance of the rite known as the Prajapati Yajna, which

secures the birth of male issue. They say that Mahâdeva and Pârvatî

were one day playing dice, and Pârvatî called in Ganesa in his form

as a rat to upset the dice with his tail and cause her to make a good

throw. Mahâdeva was wroth, and called in a demon like a cat, but he

was afraid to kill Ganesa. Then Mahâdeva cursed any one in after days

who should kill a cat. We have the same tale in the Rasâlu cycle,

where the rat of Dhol Râja changes the course of the game between

him and Râja Sarkap. The cat is respected because she is the vehicle

of Shashthî, the protectress of children, and part of the orthodox

Hindu rite at dinner is giving food to the cat. Among the Orâons,

as we have seen, the birth fiend Chordeva comes in the form of a cat.

The Rat and Mouse.

The rat is sacred as the vehicle of Ganesa. In Bombay, "to call

a rat a rat is considered by lower classes of Hindus as unlucky,

and so they call him Undir Mâma, or 'the rat uncle.' He is so called

because he is probably supposed to be the spirit of an uncle. It is

considered a great sin to kill a rat, and so, when rats give trouble

in a house, the women of the house make a vow to them that, if they

cease troubling, sweet balls will be given to them on a certain day,

and it is believed by the Hindus that when such a vow has been made,

the rats cease troubling them for some time." [654] In parts of England

it is believed that a field mouse creeping over the back of a sheep

gives it paralysis, and that this can be cured only by shutting up a

mouse in a hollow of the trunk of the witch elm or witch hazel tree

and leaving it to die of famine. [655]

The curiously deformed idiot boys which are collected at the shrine

of Shâh Daula at Gujarât are known from their wizened appearance as

the rats of Shâh Daula. [656]

The Squirrel.

The little Indian squirrel is called in the Panjâb Râma Chandra Kâ

Bhagat, or the saint of Râma Chandra, because when he was building

the bridge across the strait to Lanka, the squirrel helped by shaking

dust from his tail, and the god stroked it on the back, hence the

dark marks which it bears to the present day. Many of the Drâvidian

tribes claim descent from the squirrel.

The Bear.

The bear is regarded as a scarer of disease, and sickly children are

taken for a ride on the back of a tame bear or one of his hairs is worn

round the neck as an amulet. It was Jâmbavat, the king of the bears,

who carried off the celebrated amulet, Syamantaka. He was pursued

by Krishna, to whom he surrendered the gem and gave him his daughter

Jâmbavatî to wife. He afterwards with his army of bears assisted Râma

in his invasion of Lanka.

The Jackal.

The jackal is an important character in the folk-tales, where he

assumes the part taken in Europe by the fox. Many are the tales told

of his acuteness. The pack is supposed to howl only at each watch

of the night, and the leader says, Main Dilli kâ Bâdshâh hûn--"I am

King of Delhi" thrice, and his companions say, Ho! ho! ho!--"Yes! of

course you are."

The Hare.

Of the hare in the moon we have spoken already, and also referred

to the animal in connection with omens. In Cornwall, when a girl has

loved not wisely but too well, she haunts her deceiver in the shape

of a white hare. [657]

Birds: The Crow.

Passing on to birds, the crow is a famous totem or sacred bird. [658]

It personifies in Indian tradition the soul of the dead man; hence,

to give food to the crows, known in Northern India as Kâgaur, is

equivalent to offering food to the Manes. Râma in the Râmâyana orders

Sîtâ to make this offering, and Yama, in reward for its services,

conceded to it the right of eating the funeral meats, for which

reason the souls of the dead, when this food is given to the crows,

are enabled to pass into a better world. Hence the bird is known as

Balipushta or "nourished by offerings," and Balibhuj or "devourer of

oblations." [659]

In the Mahâbhârata, the son of Drona, one of the few survivors of the

Kauravas, sees an owl killing the crows on a sacred fig tree, and this

suggests to him the idea of attacking the camp of the Pândavas. This

contest of the owl and the crow forms the subject of one of the tales

of Somadeva. [660] The incident of the wicked crow, which bit the

foot of Sîtâ, is related in the Râmâyana. The Bhâtus of Central India,

a class of migratory athletes, worship Nârâyana and the bamboo, with

which all their feats are performed. When they bury their dead they

place rice and oil at the head of the grave, and stand near to worship

whatever animal comes to eat the offerings. They draw the happiest

omen of the state of the departed from crows visiting the spot. [661]

In the Garuda Purâna a tale is told of a wicked hunter who was

killed by a tiger in the depths of the forest, and his ghost became a

troublesome Bhût, until one day a crow carried off one of the bones

and dropped it into the Ganges, when the sinner was at once carried

in a heavenly chariot to the mansions of the blessed. This legend is

localized in the Hills and tells how Karma Sarma was killed by a tiger

in the forest. A crow took up one of his bones and carried it to the

shrine at Tungkshetra, and such is the virtue of the soil there that

the hunter was at once carried off to the heaven of Indra. [662]

Bhusundi is the legendary crow of the battlefield, who drinks the blood

of the slain. He had more blood than he could drink in the wars of the

two Asuras, Sumbha and Nisumbha, who contended with the gods. He just

quenched his thirst in the wars of Râma, but broke his beak against

the hard, dry ground, which had soaked in the small amount of blood

shed by the comparatively degenerate heroes of the Mahâbhârata. He

now croaks over the armies as they go out to war, and looks for some

Armageddon, when his thirst will at last be satisfied.

Manifold are the ideas about crows and omens taken from their

appearance and cawing. Some people think a crow has only one eye, which

he shifts from one cavity to the other as he finds it convenient. In

the Panjâb, if a crow picks up a woman's handkerchief and then drops

it, she will not use it, but gives it to a beggar. [663] The brains

of a crow are a specific against old age, but the cawing of a crow

is ominous at the beginning of a journey. If a crow hops and caws

on the roof a guest may be expected. Musalmâns have both fear and

respect for the crow, because it was he showed Cain how to bury Abel.

The Hand of Glory.

It is a common belief in Europe that the Hand of Glory, or the

dried-up hand of a criminal who has been executed, is a powerful

charm for thieves. In Ireland, "if a candle is placed in a dead hand,

neither wind nor water can extinguish it, and if carried into a house,

the inmates will sleep the sleep of the dead as long as it remains

under the roof, and no power on earth can wake them as long as the

dead hand holds the candle." The hand of a dead man is also used

to stir the milk when butter will not form. [664] So, in Northern

India, thieves have a superstition that the ashes of a corpse will,

if sprinkled by the door of a house, prevent the inmates from awaking

during the commission of a burglary. The Hand of Glory, according to

Sir G. Cox, is "the light flashing from the dim and dusky storm-cloud,"

[665] but this can hardly, with the utmost ingenuity, be invoked

to explain the similar usage of Indian burglars, who carry about

with them the stick out of a crow's nest, the Gad kî Lakrî, which

opens locks and holds the household spell-bound. The Indian thief,

like his English brother, by the way, often carries about a piece of

charcoal as a charm in his operations.

The Fowl.

Among some of the Indian races the value set on the fowl may possibly,

as Mr. Campbell suggests, depend on the feeling that the spirits of

the dead wandering near their ancient homes find an asylum in the

domestic fowls. [666] At any rate, as a sacrifice, the black fowl

is very generally preferred. This is so among the Drâvidian races of

Central India. In Ireland the first egg laid by a little black hen,

eaten the very first thing in the morning, will keep you from fever

for the year. [667] In Germany it was held that to find treasure,

that is to say, to scare the fiends which guard and hide it, one

should use a black he-goat and a black fowl. [668]

One of the Italian charms directs, "To bewitch one till he die, take

a black hen and pluck from it every feather; and this done, keep them

all carefully, so that not one be lost. With these you may do any harm

to grown-up people or children." [669] Another possible reason for the

respect paid to the fowl is that the corn spirit is often killed in

the form of a cock to promote the periodical vegetation of the crops.

The Dove and Pigeon.

The dove is held in much respect by Musalmâns. "Among the Northern

Semites the dove is sacred to Ashtoreth and has all the marks of a

totem, for the Syrians would not eat it. It was not merely a symbol,

but received divine honour. In Arabia we find a dove idol in the

Qaaba, and sacred doves surround it." [670] So, the Kheshgi Pathâns

of Qasûr in the Panjâb will not kill pigeons; they are similarly

protected by Hindus at Bharatpur, and among Muhammadans they rank

as the Sayyid among birds. In Northern India a house with pigeons

is supposed to be safe from ghosts. The dove is believed to utter

a peculiar note four times in succession, in which she bewails her

neglected lover. She says,--

Pisûn thi, kâtûn thi:

Ayâ thâ, chalâ gayâ.

"While I was grinding flour and spinning, he came and departed." [671]

The Goose or Swan.

The goose or swan is possibly an illustration of what may be a

tribal totem. It is said in the Bhâgavata Purâna that at one time

there existed one Veda, one god Agni, and one caste. This we learn

from the commentator was in the Krita age, and the one caste he

tells us of was named Hansa or Swan. The Hansas are, again, in the

Vishnu Purâna, said to be one of four castes or tribes existing in

a district exterior to India, and finally we learn from the Linga

Purâna that Hansa was a name of Brahma himself. It is reasonable to

suppose that we have a swan tribe in the Indian Hansas. [672] As an

argument in favour of the theory that the Hansa was a tribal totem,

we find that the Kalhans Râjputs of Oudh are said to take their name

from the Kâla Hansa or Black Swan; that Râjputs nowadays will not eat

it; and that the same respect is shown to a bird of allied type, the

Brâhmani Duck, and its mate, the Chakwa, Chakwi of our rivers. They

were once two lovers, separated by fate, changed into ducks, and

all through the night they call sadly to each other across the broad

stream of the Ganges, which keeps them apart.

To the Hansa is ascribed the fabulous power of being able to separate

milk from water after the two have been mixed together. [673] In

England the goose is supposed to have some uncanny way of predicting

weather. [674] In Welsh belief the wild goose is a witch, especially

if first seen on the first Thursday night of the lunar month. [675]

The ancient Greeks ascribed to the swan the gift of prophecy and

song; the sacred geese of the capital were respected at Rome, and

the ancient Germans considered it a prophetic bird. The goose was

a favourite Buddhist emblem, and a flock of them is depicted on the

Lion Pillar at Betiya in Tirhût. [676]

In the story of Nala and Damayantî, a flock of these birds arranges

the interviews between the lovers, and in the Mahâbhârata the Rishis

take the form of a swan to convey the divine message. According to

the comparative mythologists, it is needless to say, the Hansa is

the sun. [677]

Sundry Sacred Birds.

Mention has already been made of Garuda, half man, half bird, the

vehicle of Vishnu. He is the son of one of the daughters of Daksha,

whom we have already met with in connection with the moon, and the

sage Kasyapa. According to the Mahâbhârata, he was given leave to

devour wicked men, but not to touch a Brâhman. Once he did devour

a Brâhman, but the holy man so burnt his throat that he was glad

to disgorge him. In the Râmâyana we meet with Jatâyu, who is said

to be a son of Garuda and king of the vultures. He tried to stop

the chariot in which Râvana was abducting Sîtâ, and though wounded,

was able to carry the news to Râma.

A bird known as the Malahâri or "filth destroyer" is a sort of totem

of the Kanjar gipsies. If they see it singing on a green branch to

the front or right, it is an auspicious omen, and they start at once

on the prowl.

So with the Khanjarît, in Sanskrit Khanjanâkriti, the wagtail, which

is also known as Râm Chiraiya or "the bird of Râma." It is associated

with Vishnu, because the marks on its throat are said to resemble the

Sâlagrâma. It comes from the heaven of Râma in the end of the rains,

and remains till the close of spring, and then bears back to Râma a

report of the state of the world and the crops. When it first appears

every one bows to it. A Sanskrit text lays down that when a person

first sees the bird, if he be standing near a Brâhman, or near water,

or sitting on an elephant, or at daybreak, or when the bird is flying

near or sitting on a serpent, it is considered propitious. When a

person first sees it in the east, it brings him good luck all through

the year; when seen in the south-east, it predicts loss by fire;

to the south-west, fighting; to the west, acquisition of wealth;

if seen to the north-east, the observer will gain good clothes and

jewels. He who sees it in the north-west will die. The superstitions

in Europe connected with the magpie and cuckoo are of much the same

class. In Ireland it is said, "Beware of killing the water wagtail,

for it has three drops of the Devil's blood in its little body,

and ill-luck ever goes with it and follows it." [678]

The Ojhiyâls or wizards of the Central Provinces sell the skins of a

species of Buceros, called Dhanchirya, which are used to hang up in

the house to secure wealth (dhan), whence its name; and thigh bones

of the same bird are hung round the wrists of children as a charm

against evil spirits. [679]

The Hoopoe.

The legend of the hoopoe is thus told by Arrian: "To the king of the

Indians was born a son. The child had elder brothers, who, when they

came to man's estate, turned out to be very unjust and the greatest of

reprobates. They despised their brother because he was the youngest;

and they scoffed at their father and their mother, whom they despised

because they were old and grey-headed. The boy, accordingly, and his

aged parents could no longer live with these wicked men, and away they

fled from home, all three together. In the course of the protracted

journeys which they had then to undergo, the old people succumbed

to fatigue and died, and the boy showed them no light regard, but

buried them in himself, having cut off his head with a sword. Then,

as the Brachmanes (Brâhman) tell us, the all-seeing sun, in admiration

of this surprising act of piety, transformed the boy into a bird,

which is most beautiful to behold, and which lives to a very advanced

age. So on his head there grew up a crest, which was, as it were,

a memorial of what he had done in the time of his flight." [680]

Somadeva gives another story of this bird. Rajatadanshtra one day

saw his sister Somaprabhâ playing on a Pinjara, and when she would

not give it to him, took the form of a bird and flew away with it

to heaven. She cursed him that he should become a bird with a golden

crest, but promised that when in his bird shape he should fall into

a blind well, "and a merciful person draws you out, and you do him

a service in return, you shall be released from this curse." [681]

The Muhammadan tradition is that the Hudhud, or hoopoe, had the

power of finding water which the devils have buried under the earth,

and she assisted Solomon to find water for ablution, and helped him

to find Bilqîs, the queen of Sheba. In Sweden the appearance of the

hoopoe is looked on as an omen of war. [682]

The Woodpecker.

So of the woodpecker, which is said to have been a Râja in a former

birth, and still to retain his royal crest. In Italian tradition the

woodpecker (Picus Martis) is a digger in forests, where he lives alone

and digs and hews, and knows all hidden secrets and treasures. [683]

In India the Titihrî, or sandpiper, is said to sleep with his legs

in the air and thus supports the firmament.

The Peacock.

The peacock is, of course, a sacred bird. He is specially venerated

by the Jâts, who strongly object to seeing the bird killed near their

villages. A bunch of the feathers is waved over the sick to scare

the demon of disease. As we have already seen, it is a charm against

snake-bite to smoke one of its feathers in a pipe. In Europe the loud

calling of the bird presages a death.

The Pheasant.

Once upon a time the Monâl pheasant of the Hills and the Kalchuniya

had a dispute as to when the sun arose. The Monâl woke first and then

walked between the legs of the other, who was so injured that he has

never been able to do anything but skip ever since.

The Kite.

Young kites do not open their eyes till they are shown a bit of

gold. The best cure for weak eyes is to apply to them antimony mixed

with the yolk of a kite's egg, a good instance of sympathetic magic,

because the kite is the most long-sighted of birds. When sweepers

suffer from rheumatic pains, they kill a kite on Tuesday, cut up

the bones, and tie them to the affected part, which brings about an

immediate cure. [684]

The Partridge.

The partridge and the peacock once contended in dancing, and when the

turn of the partridge came he borrowed the pretty feet of the peacock,

which he has never returned since. Râja Nala, at one period of his

life, came under the malignant influence of Sani or Saturn and lost

all he possessed in the world. At last, as he was starving, he managed

to catch a black partridge and set about roasting it. But the ill-luck

of the evil planet asserted itself and the dead bird came to life and

flew away. The result is the black marks of charring which still remain

upon its body. Now it cries in the words, Subhân terî qudrat--"Great

is the power of the Almighty," because it was saved from the fire.

The Parrot.

Last among sacred birds comes the parrot. Of course, according to

Professor De Gubernatis and his school, he represents the sun. [685]

The bird appears constantly in the folk-tales as gifted with the power

of speaking and possessed of wisdom. The wife of the sage Kasyapa was,

according to the Vishnu Purâna, the mother of all the parrots. In the

folk-tales we have the parrot who knows the four Vedas who is like

the falcon in the Squire's tale of Chaucer. [686] In others he warns

the hero of fortune, befriends the heroine, and is the companion of

Râja Rasâlu. [687] The talking parrot constantly warns the deceived

husband. The bird seems to have been a sort of marriage totem among

the Drâvidian races, for images of it made of the wood of the cotton

tree or of clay are hung up in the marriage shed among the Kols and

lower castes in the North-Western Provinces.

The Alligator.

The alligator and crocodile are revered because of their habit of

killing human beings. Writing of South Africa, Mr. Macdonald says:

"To the Bathlapin the crocodile is sacred, and by all it is revered,

but rather under the form of fear than of affection. I have often

thought that the 'river calling' of South Africa, where there are

no crocodiles, is the survival of an ancient recollection of the

time when the ancestors of the present Kaffirs dwelt on the margins

of rivers infested by these murderous brutes, and where they often

saw their women drawn underneath when going to the river to fetch

water." [688] The crocodile may thus be the type of many of the

Indian water demons to whom reference has been already made. Hence,

it is a general rule among savages to spare crocodiles, or rather

only to kill them in obedience to the law of blood feud, that is,

as a retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles. In India

it became a favourite form of religious suicide to be devoured by

the crocodiles at Gangasâgar. Makara, a sort of marine monster, half

crocodile and half shark, is the vehicle of Kâmadeva, the god of love,

and Gangâ Mâî is depicted as riding on an alligator. They are sometimes

put into tanks and worshipped, and fishermen have a tradition that,

if duly appeased, they never attack them. [689]

Fish.

Fish are in many places regarded as sacred. The salmon of knowledge

appears in the Celtic folk-lore. [690] The sacred speckled trout are

found in many Irish wells, and the same idea prevails in many parts

of Europe. [691] We find the fish figuring in the Hindu myth of the

Creation. Manu, while he was bathing, found a fish in the water,

which said, "I will save thee from the flood which shall destroy

the world." The fish grew and was about to go to the ocean, when he

directed Manu to build a boat. When the deluge came, the fish dragged

the boat by his horn to a place of safety. The myth appears in other

forms, more or less akin to the Hebrew story based on Babylonian

tradition.

There are many places in India where fish are protected, such as

those at Kota and in the Mahânadî river, the Betwa at Bhilsa, Hardwâr,

Mathura, Mirzapur, Benares, Nepâl, and in Afghanistân. [692] In the

Sâraswata pool in the Himâlaya lived the sacred fish called Mrikunda;

they are fed on the fourteenth of the light half of each month,

and oblations are offered for the repose of the Manes of deceased

relations. [693] It is a common custom among pious Hindus to feed

fish at sacred places with a lâkh or more of little balls of flour

wrapped up in Bhojpatra or birch bark or paper with the name of Râma

written upon it. Their eating the name of the deity ensures their

salvation, and thus confers religious merit on the giver. The fish

is the vehicle of Khwâja Khizr, the water god, and hence has become a

sort of totem of the Shiah Musalmâns and the crest of the late royal

family of Oudh. Pictures of fish are constantly drawn on the walls

of houses as a charm against demoniacal influence.

The Fish in Folk-lore.

The fish constantly appears in the folk-tales. We have in Somadeva

the fish that laughed when it was dead; the fish that swallows the

hero or heroine or a boat. [694] In one of the Kashmîr tales we have

the fish swallowing the ring, which is like the tale which Herodotus

tells of Polycrates. In another we have the Oriental version of the

story of Jonah, where the merchant is found by the potter in the

belly of the fish. [695] So, Pradyumna, son of Krishna and Rukminî,

was thrown into the ocean by the demon Sambara, and recovered from

the belly of a fish by his wife Mâyâ Devî. In many of the modern

tales the fish takes the form of the Life Index. The king Bhartari,

the brother of the celebrated Râja Vikramaditya, who is now a godling

and spends part of the day at Benares and part at the Chunâr Fort,

had a fish, "the digestion of which gave him knowledge of all

that occurred in the three worlds." By a divine curse the nymph

Adrikâ was transformed into a fish which lived in the Jumnâ. Here

she conceived by the king Uparichara, was caught by a fisherman,

taken to the king and opened, when she regained her heavenly form,

and from her were produced Matsya, the male, and Matsyâ, the female

fish, the progenitors of the finny race. The fish often plays a part

in the miraculous conception myths, as in the Mahâbhârata we read

of a fish which devours the seed, and a girl having eaten it brings

forth a child. The fish incarnation of Vishnu possibly represents the

adoption of a fish totem into Brâhmanism. It is needless to say that

the legendary fish has been identified with the sun by the school of

comparative mythologists. [696]

The Eel.

The eel is a totem of the Mundâri Kols of Bengal and of the Orâons,

neither of whom will eat it. In Northern England an eel skin tied round

the leg is a cure for cramp. Eel fat, in the European tales, is used

as a magic ointment, and gives the power of seeing the fairies. [697]

The Tortoise.

The tortoise, again, is sacred. Vishnu appeared as a tortoise in the

Satya Yuga or first age to recover some things of value which had been

lost in the deluge. In the form of a tortoise he placed himself at

the bottom of the sea of milk, and made his back the basis on which

the gods and demons, using the serpent Vâsuki as a rope, churned the

ocean by means of the mount Mandara. The Ganrâr, a tribe of Bengal

fishermen, make sacrifices of the river tortoise to the goddess

Kolokumârî, the daughter of the deep; this is the only sacrifice

she will accept, and she brings sickness on those who fail to make

this offering. [698] The tortoise is a totem of the Mundâri Kols,

and the Kharwârs and Mânjhis of Mirzapur worship clay images of it,

which they keep in their house, because on one occasion it conveyed

their first ancestor across a river in flood.

The Gonds have a similar tradition that the tortoise saved their

ancestor Lingo from the clutches of the alligator. The tortoise is

also a helper in one of the German tales. [699] In one of Somadeva's

stories, the tortoise is sacrificed by a Brâhman to the Manes of his

father. [700]

The Frog.

The frog, again, is invested with mystical powers. The monstrous toad

of Berkeley Castle is said to be really a seal. [701]

In English folk-lore it is associated with witches, and wears a

precious jewel in its head. Hindus believe that the female frog is the

spirit of Mandodarî, the wife of Râvana. It is a common belief that

the fat of the frog forms a magic ointment which enables witches to fly

through the air. [702] According to a Scotch Saga, the middle piece of

a white snake roasted by the fire gives a knowledge of supernatural

things to anyone who shall put his finger in the fat which drops

from it. According to one of the Indian legends, Agni, the fire god,

took refuge in the water to escape the gods, but the frogs, suffering

from the heat, informed the gods, and the angry deity cursed them that

their speech should henceforth be inarticulate. The frog by his voice

announces the coming of rain; hence when rain holds off it is a common

charm to pour water over a frog, another instance of sympathetic magic.

Insects.

Even insects are in some cases regarded with veneration. In Cornwall,

the ants are "the small people" in their state of decay from off the

earth; it is deemed most unlucky to destroy a colony of ants. [703]

The ant-hill is, as we have seen, used as an altar by some of the

Drâvidian tribes, and on it they take their oaths. Hence ants are

carefully fed on certain days by both Hindus and Jainas, and are

regarded as in some way connected with the souls of the sainted

dead. We have in many of the folk-tales the ant as a helper.

So, in many parts of the Panjâb, the many-coloured grasshopper, which

feeds on the leaves of the Madâr or great swallow wort, is called

Râmjî-kî-gâê or "Râma's cow," which reminds us of the respect paid

by English children to the ladybird insect. [704] So, the Greeks and

Romans called the Cicada Mantis or "the soothsayer," and it is often

delineated on their tombs as a charm against evil. Mystic powers of

the same kind are attributed to the spider, and to Daddy Longlegs in

our nurseries.

The souls of the dead are believed to enter into flies and bees. Hence

in parts of Great Britain news of a death in a family is whispered

into the beehive. [705] In one of Somadeva's tales we find the monkeys

trying to warm themselves over a firefly, which is gifted with various

miraculous powers. [706] A fly falling into an inkstand is a lucky

omen. In the Râmâyana Hanumân metamorphoses himself into a fly to

reach Sîtâ, and there are many instances of this in the tales.

Lastly, comes the Tassar silkworm. In Mirzapur, when the seed of the

silkworm is brought to the house, the Kol or Bhuiyâr puts it in a

place which has been carefully plastered with cowdung to bring good

luck. From that time the owner must be careful to avoid ceremonial

impurity; he must give up cohabitation with his wife, he must not

sleep on a bed, he must not shave nor have his nails cut, nor anoint

himself with oil, nor eat food cooked with butter, nor tell lies,

nor do anything opposed to his simple code of morality. He vows to

Singârmatî Devî that if the worms are duly born he will make her an

offering. When the cocoons open and the worms appear, he collects the

women of his house and they sing the usual song as at the birth of

a baby into the family, and some red lead is smeared on the parting

of the hair of all the married women of the neighbourhood. He feeds

his clansmen, and duly makes the promised offering to Singârmatî

Devî. When the worms pair, the rejoicings are made as at a marriage.

In Bengal, in addition to these precautions, the women, apparently

through fear of sexual pollution, are carefully excluded from the

silkworm shed. [707] We have the same idea in the Western Isles of

Scotland, where they send a man very early on the morning of the first

of May to prevent any woman from crossing, for that, they say, would

prevent the salmon from coming into the river all the year round. [708]