CHAPTER VI.

SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.

En d' etithei neion malakên pieiran arouran,

Eureian, tripolon· polloi d' apotêres en autê

Zeugea dineuontes elastreon entha kai entha.

Iliad, xviii. 541-43.

The subject of rural festivals is much too extensive for treatment in

a limited space. Here reference will be made only to a few of those

ceremonies which illustrate the principles recently elucidated from

the folk-lore of Europe by Messrs. Frazer, Gomme, and Mannhardt. [783]

The Akhtîj.

The respect paid to ploughing is illustrated by the early Vedic legend

of Sîtâ, who, like the Etruscan Tago, sprung from a furrow. [784]

It is only in a later development of the story that she becomes the

daughter of Janaka, and wife of Râma Chandra.

The agricultural year in Northern India begins with the ceremony of

the Akhtîj, "the undecaying third," which is celebrated on the third

day of the light fortnight in the month of Baisâkh, or May. In the

North-Western Provinces the cultivator first fees his Pandit to select

an auspicious hour on that day for the commencement of ploughing. In

most places he does not begin till 3 p.m.; in Mirzapur the time fixed

is usually during the night, as secrecy is in most of these rural

ceremonies an important part of the ritual.

In Rohilkhand the cultivator goes at daybreak to one of his fields,

which must be of a square or oblong shape. He takes with him a brass

drinking vessel of water, a branch of the Mango tree, both of which

are, as we have seen, efficacious in scaring spirits, and a spade. The

object of the rite is to propitiate Prithivî, "the broad world,"

as contrasted with Dhartî Mâî, or "Mother Earth," and Sesha Nâga,

the great snake which supports the world. Whenever Sesha yawns he

causes an earthquake.

The Pandit first makes certain observations by which he is able

to determine in which direction the snake happens at the time to be

lying, because, in order to ease himself of his burden, he moves about

beneath the world, and lies, sometimes north and south, north-west

and south-east, and so on. This imaginary line having been marked

off, the peasant digs up five clods of earth with his spade. This

is a lucky number, as it is a quarter more than four. Hence Sawâi,

or one and a quarter, has been taken as one of the titles of the

Mahârâja of Jaypur. He then sprinkles water five times into the trench

with the branch of the sacred mango. The object of this is by a form

of sympathetic magic to ensure the productiveness of the crop, and

scare the demons of evil which would injure it. In Bombay, at the

beginning of the sowing season, a cocoanut is broken and thrown at

each side of the plough, so that the soil spirits may leave and make

room for Lakshmî, the goddess of prosperity, who is represented by

the plough. [785] During all these proceedings the peasant watches

the omens most carefully, and if anything inauspicious happens, the

ceremony must be discontinued and recommenced at a luckier hour later

on in the day. When he gets home, some woman of the family, who must

not be a widow, who is naturally considered unlucky, presents him

with curds and silver for good luck. He then stays all day in the

house, rests, and does no work, and does not even go to sleep. He

avoids quarrels and disputes of all kinds, and on that day will give

neither grain nor money, nor fire to any one. [786] Next day he eats

sweet food and balls of wheaten flour, toasted with curds and sugar,

but carefully abstains from salt.

These usages have parallels in the customs of other lands. Thus,

the rule against giving fire on the sowing day prevailed in Rome,

and is still observed in the rural parts of England. In Iceland and

the Isle of Man it is believed that fire and salt are the most sacred

things given to man, and if you give them away on May Day you give

away your luck for the year; no one will give fire from a house while

an unbaptized baby is in it. [787]

In Râjputâna the custom is less elaborate. The first day of ploughing

after the rains begin is known as the Halsotiya festival. Omens

being favourable, the villagers proceed to the fields, each household

carrying a new earthen pot, coloured with turmeric, the virtues of

which have been already explained, and full of Bâjra millet. Looking

to the north, the home of the gods, they make an obeisance to the

earth, and then a selected man ploughs five furrows. The ploughman's

hands and the bullock's hoofs are rubbed with henna, and the former

receives a dinner of delicacies. [788]

In Mirzapur, only the northern part of the field, that facing the

Himâlaya is dug up in five places with a piece of mango wood. The

peasant, when he goes home, eats rich food, and abstains from quarrels.

All over the country the people seem to be becoming less careful

about these observances. Some, without consulting a Pandit at all,

go early to the field on the morning after the Holî fire is lighted,

scratch the ground with a ploughshare, and on their return eat cakes

and sweetmeats. Others, on the first day after the Holî, when they

hear the voice of the Koil, or Indian cuckoo at twilight, go in

silence to the field and make a few scratches. [789]

Among the Drâvidian Hill tribes of Mirzapur, the ceremony seems to be

merely a formal propitiation of the village godlings. Among the Korwas,

before ploughing commences, the Baiga makes an offering of butter and

molasses in his own field. This he burns in the name of the village

godlings, and does a special sacrifice at their shrine. After this

ploughing commences. The Kharwârs, before sowing, take five handfuls

of grain from the sowing basket, and pray to Dhartî Mâtâ, the earth

goddess, to be propitious. They keep the grain, grind it, and offer it

at her annual festival in the month of Sâwan or August. The Pankas only

do a burnt offering through the Baiga, and offer up cakes and other

food, known as Nêuj. Before the spring sowing, a general offering of

five cocks is made to the village godlings by the Baiga, who consumes

the sacrifice himself. All these people do not commence agricultural

work till the Baiga starts work in his own field, and they prefer to

do this on Monday.

In Hoshangâbâd the ceremony is somewhat different. The ploughing is

usually begun by the landlord, and all the cultivators collect and

assist at the ceremony in his field before they go on to their own. "It

is the custom for him to take a rupee and fasten it up in the leaf of

the Palâsa tree with a thorn. He also folds up several empty leaves

in the same way and covers them all with a heap of leaves. When he has

done worship to the plough and bullocks, he yokes them and drives them

through the heap, and all the cultivators then scramble for the leaf

which contains the rupee. They then each plough their fields a little,

and returning in a body, they are met by the daughter or sister of

the landlord, who comes out to meet them with a brass vessel full of

water, a light in one hand and the wheaten cakes in the other. The

landlord and each of the cultivators of his caste put a rupee into

her water vessel and take a bit of the cake, which they put on their

heads. On the same day an earthen jar full of water is taken by each

cultivator to his threshing-floor, and placed to stand on four lumps

of earth, each of which bears the name of one of the four months of

the rainy season. Next morning as many lumps as are wetted by the

leaking of the water jar (which is very porous and always leaks),

so many months of rain will there be, and the cultivator makes his

arrangements for the sowing accordingly." [790]

In the Himâlaya, again, there is a different ritual: "On the day fixed

for the commencement of ploughing the ceremony known as Kudkhyo and

Halkhyo takes place. The Kudkhyo takes place in the morning or evening,

and begins by lighting a lamp before the household deity and offering

rice, flowers, and balls made of turmeric, borax, and lemon juice. The

conch is then sounded, and the owner of the field or relative whose

lucky day it is, takes three or four pounds of seed-grain from a basin

and carries it to the edge of the field prepared for its reception. He

then scrapes a portion of the earth with a mattock, and sows a part

of the seed. One to five lamps are placed on the ground, and the

surplus seed is given away. At the Halkhyo ceremony, the balls as

above described are placed on the ploughman, plough, and plough cattle;

four or five furrows are ploughed and sown, and the farm servants are

fed." [791] This custom of giving away what remains of the seed-grain

to labourers and beggars prevails generally throughout Northern India.

A curious rite is performed in Kulu at the rice planting. "Each family

in turn keeps open house. The neighbours, men and women, collect at the

rice-fields. As soon as a field is ready, the women enter it in line,

each with a bundle of young rice in her hands, and advance dabbing the

young plants into the slush as they go. The mistress of the house and

her daughters, dressed in their gayest, take their stand in front of

the line, and supply more bundles of plants as they are wanted. The

women sing in chorus as they work; impromptu verses are often put in,

which occasion a great deal of laughter. Two or three musicians are

generally entertained by the master of the house, who also supplies

food and drink of his best for the whole party. The day's work often

ends with a tremendous romp, in which every one throws mud at his

neighbours, or tries to give him or her a roll in it. No such ceremony

is observed in sowing other crops, rice having been formerly, in all

probability, the most important crop. It is also the custom to make

a rude image of a man in dough and to throw it away as a sacrifice to

the Ishta Deotâ or household deity." [792] This can hardly be anything

but a survival of an actual sacrifice to appease the field godlings

at sowing time. The rude horseplay which goes on is like that at the

Saturnalia and on the English Plough Monday.

Going on to the Drâvidian races, the Mundas have a feast in May at

the time of sowing for the first rice crop. "It is held in honour

of the ancestral shades and other spirits, who, if unpropitiated,

would prevent the seed from germinating. A he-goat and a cock are

sacrificed." Again in June they have a festival to propitiate the

local gods, that they may bless the crops. "In the Mundâri villages

everyone plants a branch of the Bel tree in his land, and contributes

to the general offering, which is made by the priest in the sacred

grove, a fowl, a pitcher of beer, and a handful of rice." In July,

again, each cultivator sacrifices a fowl, and after some mysterious

rites, a wing is stripped off and inserted in a cleft of a bamboo,

and stuck up in the rice-field or dung-heap. If this is omitted,

the rice crop, it is supposed, will not come to maturity. It appears

more like a charm than a sacrifice. Among the Kols of Chota Nâgpur,

there is a special dance, "the women follow the men and change their

attitudes and positions in obedience to signals from them." In one

special figure "the women all kneel and pat the ground with their

hands, in tune of music, as if coaxing the earth to be fertile." [793]

Prohibition of Ploughing.

A clergyman in Devonshire informed Brand that the old farmers in his

parish called the three first days of March "Blind Days," which were

anciently considered unlucky, and on them no farmer would sow his

seed. [794]

In Northern India there are certain days on which ploughing is

forbidden, such as the Nâgpanchamî or snake feast held on the

fifth of the light half of Sâwan, and the fifteenth of the month

Kârttik. Turning up the soil on such days disturbs Seshanâga, the great

world serpent and Mother Earth. But Mother Earth is also supposed

to sleep on six days in every month--the 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 21st,

and 24th; or, as others say, the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 21st, and

24th. On such days it is inadvisable to plough if it can be possibly

avoided. The fifteen days in the month of Kuâr which are devoted to

the worship of the Pitri or sainted dead, are also an inauspicious

time for agricultural work.

All these ceremonies at the commencement of the agricultural season

remind us in many ways of the observance of the festivals of Plough

Monday and similar customs in rural England. [795]

The Rakshabandhan and Jâyî Festivals.

We have already noticed the use of the knotted cord or string as an

amulet. On the full moon of Sâwan is held the Salono or Rakshabandhan

festival, when women tie these amulets round the wrists of their

friends. Connected with this is what is known as the barley feast,

the Jâyî or Jawâra of Upper India, and the Bhujariya of the Central

Provinces. It is supposed to be connected in some way with the famous

story of Alha and Udal, which forms the subject of a very popular

local epic. They were Râjputs of the Banâphar clan, and led the

Chandels in their famous campaign against the Râhtaurs of Kanauj,

which immediately preceded, and in fact led up to, the Muhammadan

conquest of Northern India. [796]

In connection with this simple rural feast, a most elaborate ritual

has been prescribed under Brâhmanical influence, but all that is

usually done is that on the seventh day of the light half of Sâwan,

grains of barley are sown in a pot of manure, and spring up so

rapidly that by the end of the month the vessel is full of long,

yellowish-green stalks. On the first day of the next month, Bhâdon,

the women and girls take these out, throw the earth and manure into

water, and distribute the plants to their male friends, who bind them

in their turbans and about their dress. [797]

We have already come across an instance of a similar practice among

the Kharwârs at the Karama festival, and numerous examples of the same

have been collected by Mr. Frazer. [798] Thus, "in various parts of

Italy and all over Sicily it is still customary to put plants in water

or in earth on the Eve of St. John, and from the manner in which they

are found to be blooming or faded on St. John's Day omens are drawn,

especially as to fortune in love. In Prussia two hundred years ago

the farmers used to send out their servants, especially their maids,

to gather St. John's wort on Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. When they

had fetched it, the farmer took as many plants as there were persons

and stuck them on the wall or between the beams; and it was thought

that the person whose plant did not bloom would soon fall sick or

die. The rest of the plants were tied in a bundle, fastened to the

end of a pole, and set up at the gate or wherever the corn would

be brought in at the next harvest. This bundle was called Kupole,

the ceremony was known as Kupole's festival, and at it the farmer

prayed for a good crop of hay, etc."

We have the same idea in the English rural custom of "wearing the

rose." There can be no reasonable doubt that all these rites were

intended to propitiate the spirit of vegetation and promote the

germination and growth of the next crop. [799]

The Diwâlî, or Feast of Lamps.

The regular Diwâlî, or Feast of Lamps, which is performed on the last

day of the dark fortnight in the month of Kârttik, is more of a city

than a rural festival. But even in the villages everyone burns a lamp

outside the house on that night.

The feast has, of course, been provided with an appropriate

legend. Once upon a time an astrologer foretold to a Râja that on the

new moon of Kârttik his Kâl, or fate, would appear at midnight in

the form of a snake; that the way to avoid this was that he should

order all his subjects on that night to keep their houses, streets,

and lanes clean; that there should be a general illumination; that the

king, too, should place a lamp at his door, and at the four corners

of his couch, and sprinkle rice and sweetmeats everywhere.

If the door-lamp went out it was foretold that he would become

insensible, and that he was to tell his Rânî to sing the praises of

the snake when it arrived. These instructions were carefully carried

out, and the snake was so pleased with his reception, that he told

the Rânî to ask any boon she pleased. She asked for long life for her

husband. The snake replied that it was out of his power to grant this,

but that he would make arrangements with Yamarâja, the lord of the

dead, for the escape of her husband, and that she was to continue to

watch his body.

Then the snake carried off the spirit of the king to Yamarâja. When

the papers of the king's life were produced before Yamarâja his age

was denoted by a cipher, but the kindly snake put a seven before

it, and thus raised his age to seventy years. Then Yamarâja said:

"I find that this person has still seventy years to live. Take him

back at once." So the snake brought back the soul of the king, and he

revived and lived for seventy years more, and established this feast

in honour of the event. Much the same idea appears in one of Grimm's

German tales. [800]

The original basis of the feast seems to have been the idea that on

this night the spirits of the dead revisit their homes, which are

cleaned and lighted for their reception. Now it is chiefly observed

in honour of Lakshmî, the goddess of wealth and good luck, who is

propitiated by gambling. On this night the women make what is called

"the new moon lampblack" (Amâwas Kâ Kâjal), which is used throughout

the following year as a charm against the Evil Eye, and, as we have

already seen, the symbolical expulsion of poverty goes on.

Immediately following this festival is the Bhaiyya Dûj, or "Brothers'

second," when sisters make a mark on the foreheads of their brothers

and cause them to eat five grains of gram. These must be swallowed

whole, not chewed, and bring length of days. The sister then makes

her brother sit facing the east, and feeds him with sweetmeats,

in return for which he gives her a present.

The Govardhan.

Following the Diwâlî comes what is known as the Govardhan, or Godhan,

which is a purely rural feast. In parts of the North-Western Provinces,

the women, on a platform outside the house, make a little hut of mud

and images of Gaurî and Ganesa; there they place the parched grain

which the girls offered on the night of the Diwâlî; near it they

lay some thorny grass, wave a rice pounder round the hut, and invoke

blessings on their relations and friends. This is also a cattle feast,

and cowherds come round half drunk and collect presents from their

employers. They sing, "May this house grow as the sugar-cane grows,

as Ganga increases at the sacred confluence of Prayâg!"

In the Panjâb "the women make a Govardhan of cowdung, which consists

of Krishna lying on his back surrounded with little cottage loaves of

dung to represent mountains, in which are stuck stems of grass with

tufts of cotton or rag on the top for trees, and by little dung balls

for cattle, watched by dung men dressed in little bits of rag. Another

opinion is that the cottage loaves are cattle, and the dung balls

calves. On this they put the churn-staff, five white sugar-canes, some

parched rice, and a lamp in the middle. The cowherds are then called

in, and they salute the whole, and are fed with rice and sweets. The

Brâhman then takes the sugar-cane and eats a bit, and till then no one

must eat, cut, or press cane. Rice-milk is then given to the Brâhmans,

and the bullocks have their horns dyed and are extra well fed." [801]

The Emperor Akbar, we are told, used to join in this festival. [802]

The custom in Cawnpur, known as the Dâng, or "Club," Diwâlî is very

similar. The cowherds worship Govardhan in the form of a little heap

of cowdung decorated with cotton, and go round to the houses of the

persons whose cattle they graze, dance to the music of two sticks

beaten together and a drum played by a Hindu weaver, and get presents

of grain, cloth, or money. [803]

Cattle Festivals.

There are a number of similar usages in various parts of the country

solemnized with the object of protecting the herds. Thus in Hoshangâbâd

they have the rite of frightening the cattle. "Everyone keeps awake

all night, and the herdsmen go out begging in a body, singing,

and keeping the cattle from sleeping. In the morning they are all

stamped with the hand dipped in yellow paint for the white ones,

and white paint for the red ones, and strings of cowries or peacocks'

feathers are tied to their horns. Then they are driven out with wild

whoops or yells, and the herdsman standing at the doorway smashes

an earthen water jar on the last. The neck of this is placed on the

gateway leading to the cattle sheds, and preserves them from the

Evil Eye. In the afternoon the cattle are all collected together,

and the Parihâr priest sprinkles them with water, after which they

are secure from all possible evil." [804]

This reminds us of the custom of Manx cattle dealers, who drive

their herd through fire on May Day, so as to singe them a little,

and preserve them from harm. [805] The same was probably the origin

of the bull-running in the town of Stamford of which Brand gives an

account. So the Chinese make an effigy of an ox in clay, which after

being beaten by the governor, is stoned by the people till they break

it in pieces, from which they expect an abundant year.

We have already met with instances where the scape animal merges in a

sacrifice. In Garhwâl, at the sacrifice in honour of Devî, the Brâhmans

make a circle of flour filled with various sorts of colours. Inside

this they sit and repeat sacred verses. Then a male buffalo is made

to move round the circle seven times, and everyone throws some holy

rice and oats over it. After this the headman of the village strikes

it lightly on the back with a sword and makes it run, on which the

people follow and hack it to pieces with their swords. [806]

So in Bengal, on the last day of the month Kârttik (October-November)

a pig is turned loose among a herd of buffaloes, who are encouraged to

gore it to death. The carcase is given to the Dusâdh village menials

to eat. The Ahîrs, who practise this strange rite, aver that it has no

religious significance, and is merely a sort of popular amusement. They

do not themselves partake of any part of the pig. [807] It is plainly

a survival of a regular sacrifice, probably intended to promote the

fertility of the herds and crops.

Similar customs for the protection of cattle prevail in other parts

of the country. Thus, in Mirzapur, at the Diwâlî, a little earthen

bell is procured from the village potter, and hung round the necks

of the cattle as a protective.

In Berâr, at the Pola festival, the bullocks of the whole village pass

in procession under a sacred rope made of twisted grass and covered

with mango leaves. The sacred pole of the headman is then borne aloft

to the front. He gives the order to advance, and all the bullocks, his

own leading the way, file under the rope according to the respective

rank of their owners. The villagers vie with each other in having

the best decorated and painted bullocks, and large sums are often

expended in this way. This rope is supposed to possess the magic

power of protecting the cattle from disease and accident. [808]

In Northern India it is a common charm to drive the cattle under a

rope fixed over the village cattle path, and among the Drâvidians of

Mirzapur, two poles and a cross bar are fixed at the entrance of the

village with the same object. The charm is rendered more powerful if

a plough beam is sunk in the ground close by.

The custom of the silent tending of cattle has been already

mentioned. At the cattle festival in Râjputâna, in the evening the

cow is worshipped, the herd having been previously tended. "From

this ceremony no rank is excepted; on the preceding day, dedicated

to Krishna, prince and peasant all become pastoral attendants of the

cow in the form of Prithivî or the Earth." [809] In some places the

flowers and other ornaments of the cattle, which they lose in their

wild flight, are eagerly picked up and treated as relics bringing good

fortune. We have a similar idea in the blessing of cattle in Italy,

[810] and this is probably the origin of the observance described by

Aubrey, when "in Somersetshire, where the wassaile (which is, I think,

Twelfe Eve), the ploughmen have their Twelfe cake, and they go into

the ox-house to the cattle, and drink to the ox with the crumpled

horn that treads out the corne." [811]

The Sleep of Vishnu.

According to the rural belief, Vishnu sleeps for four months in the

year, from the eleventh of the bright half of the month Asârh, the

Deosoni Ekâdashî, "the reposing of the god," till the eleventh of the

bright half of the month Kârttik, the Deothân, or "god's awakening." So

the demon Kumbha Karana in the Râmâyana when he is gorged sleeps for

six months. According to Mr. Campbell, [812] during these four months

while the god sleeps demons are abroad, and hence there are an unusual

number of protective festivals in that period. On the day he retires

to rest women mark the house with lines of cowdung as a safeguard,

fast during the day, and eat sweetmeats at night. During the four

months of the god's rest it is considered unlucky to marry, repair

the thatch of a hut, or make the house cots. His rising at the Deothân

marks the commencement of the sugar-cane harvest, when the cane mill

is marked with red paint, and lamps are lighted upon it. The owner of

the crop then does worship in his field, and breaks off some stalks

of sugar-cane, which he puts on the boundary. He distributes five

canes each to the village Brâhman, blacksmith, carpenter, washerman,

and water carrier, and takes five home.

Then on a wooden board about one and a half feet long two figures

of Vishnu and his wife Lakshmî are drawn with lines of butter and

cowdung. On the board are placed some cotton, lentils, water-nuts,

and sweets; a fire sacrifice is offered, and the five canes are

placed near the board and tied together at the top. The Sâlagrâma,

or stone emblematical of Vishnu, is lifted up, and all sing a rude

melody, calling on the god to wake and join the assembly. "Then all

move reverently round the emblems, the tops of the cane are broken

off and hung on the roof till the Holî, when they are burnt. When

the worship has been duly performed, and the officiating Brâhman

has declared that the fortunate moment has arrived, the cutting may

commence. The whole village is a scene of festivity, and dancing and

singing go on frantically. Till this day no Hindu will eat or touch

the crop. They believe that even jackals will not eat the cane till

then. The real fact is that till then the juice has not properly come

up, and the cane is not worth eating. On the first day the cane is

cut the owner eats none of it, it would bring him bad luck." [813]

Ceremonies to Avert Blight, etc.

There are various ceremonies intended to save certain crops from the

ravages of blight and insects. Blight is very generally attributed to

the constant measurement of the soil which goes on during settlement

operations, to the irreligious custom of eating beef, or to adultery,

or to a demon of the east wind, who can be appeased with prayers and

ceremonies. [814] No pious Hindu, if the seed fails, will re-sow his

winter crop.

When sugar-cane germinates, the owner of the crop does worship on the

next Saturday before noon. On one of the days of the Naurâtrî in the

month of Kuâr the cultivator himself, or through his family priest,

burns a fire sacrifice in the field and offers prayers. In the month

of Kârttik he has a special ceremony to avert a particularly dangerous

grub, known as the Sûndi. For this purpose he takes from his house

butter, cakes, sweets, and five or six lumps of dough pressed into

the shape of a pear, with some clean water. He goes to the field,

offers a fire sacrifice, and presents some of the cakes to the field

spirit. He then buries one of the lumps of dough at each corner of his

field, and, having eaten the rest of the cakes, goes home happy. [815]

When field-mice do injury to the crop the owner goes to a Syâna, or

cunning man, who writes a charm, the letters of which he dissolves in

water and scatters it over the plants. The ancient Greek farmer was

recommended to proceed as follows: "Take a sheet of paper and write on

it these words, 'Ye mice here present, I adjure ye that ye injure me

not, neither suffer another mouse to injure me. I give you yonder field

(specifying the field), but if ever I catch you here again, by the help

of the Mother of the gods, I will rend you in seven pieces.' Write

this and stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field where the

mice are, taking care to keep the written side uppermost." [816]

General Sleeman gives a case of a cowherd who saw in a vision that

the water of the Biyâs river should be taken up in pitchers and

conveyed to the fields attacked with blight, but that none of it

should be allowed to fall on the ground in the way. On reaching the

field a small hole should be made in the bottom of the pitcher so as

to keep up a small but steady stream, as the bearer carried it round

the border of the field, so that the water might fall in a complete

ring except at a small opening which was to be kept dry, so that

the demon of the blight could make his escape through it. Crowds of

people came to fetch the water, which was not supposed to have any

particular virtue except that arising from this revelation. [817]

Scaring of Locusts.

Locusts, one of the great pests of the Indian peasant's life, are

scared by shouting, lighting of fires, beating of brass pots, and in

particular, by ringing the temple bell. In Sirsa, the Karwa, a flying

insect which injures the flower of the Bâjra millet, is expelled by

a man taking his sister's son on his shoulder and feeding him with

rice-milk while he repeats the following charm: "The nephew has

mounted his uncle's shoulder. Go, Karwa, to some other field!" [818]

In the Panjâb a popular legend thus explains the enmity between the

starling and the locust. Once upon a time the locusts used to come

and destroy the crops as they were ripening. The people prayed to

Nârâyana, and he imprisoned them in a deep valley in the Himâlaya,

putting the starlings to keep them in confinement. Now and again the

locusts try to escape and the starlings promptly put them to death. The

legend is probably based on the fact that both the starlings and the

locusts come from the Hills, and about the same time. [819]

Another device to scare them is based on the well-known principle

of treating with high distinction one or two chosen individuals of

the obnoxious species, while the rest are pursued with relentless

vigour. "In the East Indian island of Bali, the mice which ravage

the rice-fields are caught in great numbers and burnt in the same

way that corpses are burnt. But two of the captured mice are allowed

to live and receive a little packet of white linen. Then the people

bow down before them, as before gods, and let them go." [820] So

in Mirzapur the Drâvidian tribes, when a flight of locusts comes,

catch one, decorate its head with a spot of red lead, salaam to it,

and let it go, when the whole flight immediately departs.

Betel Planting.

When cultivators in the North-Western Provinces sow betel, they cook

rice-milk near the plants and offer it to the local godling. They

divide the offering, and a little coarse sugar is dedicated to

Mahâbîr, the monkey god, which is taken home and distributed among

the children. This is known as Jeonâr Pûjâ or "the banquet rite." The

Barais, who make a speciality of cultivating the plant, have two

godlings of their own, Sokha Bâba, the ghost of some famous magician,

and Nâgbeli, the "creeper Nâga," or snake, who is connected with the

sinuous growth of the tendrils.

In Bengal, the Baruis, a similar caste, worship their patron goddess

on the fourth day of the month Baisâkh with offerings of flowers,

rice, sweetmeats, and sandal-wood paste. Some do the Navamî Pûjâ in

honour of Ushas, or the Aurora, on the sixth day of the waning moon

in Asin. Plantains, rice, sugar, and sweetmeats are placed in the

centre of the garden, from which the worshippers retire, but after a

little time return, and carrying out the offerings, distribute them

among the village children. In Bikrampur, Sunjâî, a form of Bhâgawatî,

is worshipped.

They do not employ Brâhmans in the worship, because, they say, a

Brâhman was the first cultivator of betel. Through his neglect the

plant grew so high that he used his sacred thread to fasten up the

tendrils, but as it still shot up faster than he could supply thread,

its charge was given to a Kâyasth or writer. Hence it is that a Brâhman

cannot enter a betel garden without defilement. [821] In another form

of the story, the thread of the Brâhman grew up to the sky and became

a betel tendril. So, in a Tartar story, the hop plant originates from

the bow-string of a man that had been turned into a bear. [822]

All over India, the betel plant, perhaps on account of the delicacy

of its growth, is considered as being very susceptible to demoniacal

influence, and a woman or a person in a state of ceremonial pollution

is excluded from the nursery. We meet with an instance of the same

idea among the Ainos. "They prepare for the fishing by observing

rules of ceremonial purity, and when they have gone out to fish the

women at home must keep strict silence, or the fish would hear them

and disappear. When the first fish is caught he is brought home

and passed through a small opening at the end of the hut, but not

through the door; for if he were passed through the door, the other

fish would certainly see him and disappear." [823]

All these protective measures intended to guard the crop from

defilement and demoniacal influence are rather like the old English

rule of the young men and girls walking round the corn to bless it

on Palm Sunday, an observance which Audley drily remarks in his time

"gave many a conception." [824]

Sugar-cane Sowing.

When sugar-cane is being planted, the sower is decorated with

silver ornaments, a necklace, flowers, and a red mark is made on his

forehead. It is considered a favourable omen if a man on horseback

come into the field while the sowing is going on. After the sowing

is completed, all the men employed come home to the farmer's house

and have a good dinner. [825] All surplus seed is carefully destroyed

with fire, as it is believed that the plants grown from it would be

worthless and produce only flowers and seed.

In the Panjâb, on the first day of sowing, sweetened rice is brought

to the field, the women smear the outside of the vessel with it, and

it is then distributed to the workmen. Next morning a woman puts on a

necklace and walks round the field, winding thread on a spindle. This

forms a sacred circle which repels evil influence from the crop. On

the night of the Deothân, when Vishnu wakes from his four months'

sleep, lamps are lighted on the cane mill, and it is smeared with

daubs of red paint. [826]

Cotton Planting.

When the cotton has sprung up, the owner of the field goes there on

Sunday forenoon with some butter, sweetmeats, and cakes. He burns a

fire sacrifice, offers up some of the food, and eats the remainder in

silence. Here we have another instance of the taboo against speaking,

which so commonly appears in these rural ceremonies. [827]

When the cotton comes into flower, some parched rice is taken to the

field on a Wednesday or Friday; some is thrown broadcast over the

plants, and the rest given to children, the object assigned being that

the bolls may swell, as the rice does when parched. Many instances of

symbolical or sympathetic magic of the same kind might be collected

from the usages of other races. Thus, for instance, in Sumatra, the

rice is sown by women, who, in sowing, let their hair hang loose down

their back, in order that the rice may grow luxuriantly and have long

stalks. [828]

When the cotton is ripe and ready for picking, the women pickers

go to the north or east quarters of the field with parched rice and

sweetmeats. These directions are, of course, selected with reference

to the Himâlaya, the home of the gods, and the rising sun. They pick

two or three large pods, and then sit down and pull out the cotton

in as long a string as possible without breaking it. They hang these

threads on the largest cotton plant they can find in the field, round

which they sit, and fill their mouths as full as possible with the

parched rice, which they blow out as far as they can in each direction;

the idea being, of course, the same as in the ceremony when the plant

flowers. A fire offering is made and the picking commences. [829]

The custom in Karnâl is very similar. When the pods open and the

cotton is ready for picking, the women go round the field eating

rice-milk, the first mouthful of which they spit on the field towards

the west. The first cotton picked is exchanged for its weight in

salt, which is prayed over and kept in the house till the picking is

over, when it is distributed among the members of the household and

friends. [830]

The Last Sheaf.

In Hoshangâbâd, when the reaping is nearly over, a small patch of

corn is left standing in the last field, and the reapers rest a

little. Then they rush at this piece, tear it up, and cast it in

the air, shouting victory to their deities, Omkâr Mahârâja, Jhamajî,

Râmjî Dâs, or other local godlings according to their persuasions. A

sheaf is made of this corn, which is tied to a bamboo, stuck up on

the last harvest cart, carried home in triumph, and fastened up at

the threshing-floor or to a tree, or on the cattle shed, where its

services are essential in averting the Evil Eye. [831]

The same custom prevails in the eastern districts of the North-Western

Provinces. Sometimes a little patch in the corner of the field is

left untilled as a refuge for the field spirit; sometimes it is sown

and the corn reaped with a rush and shout and given to the Baiga as

an offering to the local godlings, or distributed among beggars.

This is a most interesting analogue of a branch of European folk-lore

which has been copiously illustrated by Mr. Frazer. [832] It is the

Devon custom of "Crying the Neck." The last sheaf is the impersonation

of the Corn Mother, and is worshipped accordingly. We have met already

with the same idea in the reservation of small patches of the original

forest for the accommodation of the spirits of the jungle.

First-fruits.

There are many customs connected with the disposal of the first-fruits

of the crop. The eating of the new grain is attended with various

observances, in which the feeding of Brâhmans and beggars takes a

prominent place. In Kângra, the first-fruits of corn, oil, and wine,

and the first fleece of the sheep are not indeed actually given,

but a symbolical offering is made in their stead. These offerings

are made to the Jâk or field spirit to whom reference has already

been made. The custom has now reached a later stage, for the local

Râja puts the right of receiving the offerings on behalf of the Jâk

to public auction. [833]

In the same way at Ladâkh, "the main rafters of the houses are

supported by cylindrical or square pillars of wood, the top of which,

under the truss, is, in the houses of the peasantry, encircled

by a band of straw and ears of wheat, forming a primitive sort of

capital. It is the custom, I was told, to consecrate the two or three

first handsful of each year's crop to the spirit who presides over

agriculture, and these bands are thus deposited. Sometimes rams'

horns are added to this decoration." [834]

In Northern India the first pressing of the sugar-cane is attended

with special observances. When the work of pressing commences, the

first piece of sugar made is presented to friends or beggars, as is

the first bowl of the extracted juice, and in the western districts of

the North-Western Provinces some is offered in the name of the saint

Shaikh Farîd, who from this probably gains his title of Shakkarganj,

or "Treasury of sugar."

The Santâls have a harvest-home feast in December, at which the Jag

Mânjhi, or headman of the village, entertains the people. The cattle

are anointed with oil and daubed over with vermilion, and a share of

rice-beer is given to each animal. [835]

Everywhere in treading out the grain the rule that the cattle move

round the stake in the course of the sun is rigidly observed.

Ceremonies at Winnowing.

Winnowing is a very serious and solemn operation, not lightly to be

commenced without due consultation of the stars.

In Hoshangâbâd, when the village priest has fixed a favourable

time, the cultivator, his whole family, and his labourers go to the

threshing-floor, taking with them the prescribed articles of worship,

such as milk, butter, turmeric, boiled wheat, and various kinds of

grain. The threshing-floor stake is washed in water, and these things

are offered to it and to the pile of threshed grain. The boiled wheat

is scattered about in the hope that the Bhûts or spirits may content

themselves with it and not take any of the harvested corn. Then the

master stands on a three-legged stool, and taking five basketsful

from the threshed heap, winnows them. After winnowing, the grain

and chaff are collected again and measured; if the five baskets are

turned out full, or anything remains over, it is a good omen. If

they cannot fill the baskets, the place where they began winnowing is

considered unlucky and it is removed a few yards to another part of

the threshing-floor. The five basketsful are presented to a Brâhman,

or distributed in the village, not mixed with the rest of the harvest.

Winnowing can then go on as convenient, but one precaution must be

taken. As long as winnowing goes on the basket must never be set down

on its bottom, but always upside down. If this were not done, the

spirits would use the basket to carry off the grain. The day's results

are measured generally in the evening. This is done in perfect silence,

the measurer sitting with his back to the unlucky quarter of the sky,

and tying knots to keep count of the number of the baskets. The spirits

rob the grain until it is measured, but when once it has been measured

they are afraid of detection. [836]

In the Eastern Panjâb, the clean grain is collected into a

heap. Preparatory to measuring, the greatest care has to be observed

in the preparation of this heap, or evil spirits will diminish the

yield. One man sits facing the north, and places two round balls of

cowdung on the ground. Between them he sticks in a plough-coulter,

a symbol known as Shâod Mâtâ or "the mother of fertility." A piece of

the Âkh or swallow-wort and some Dûb grass are added, and they salute

it, saying: "O Mother Shâod! Give the increase! Make our bankers and

rulers contented!" The man then carefully hides the image of Shâod

from all observers while he covers it up with grain, which the others

throw over his head from behind. When it is well covered, they pile

the grain upon it, but three times during the process the ceremony of

Châng is performed. The man stands to the south of the heap and goes

round it towards the west the first and third time, and the reverse

way the second time. As he goes round, he has the hand furthest from

the heap full of grain, and in the other a winnowing fan, with which

he taps the heap. When the heap is finished they sprinkle it with

Ganges water, and put a cloth over it till it is time to measure

the grain. A line is then drawn on the ground all round the heap,

inside which none but the measurer must go. All these operations must

be performed in profound silence. [837]

In Bareilly, when the whole of the grain and chaff has been winnowed,

all the dressed grain is collected into a heap. "The winnower, with

his basket in his right hand, goes from the south towards the west,

and then towards the north, till he reaches the pole to which the

treading-out cattle have been tethered. He then returns the same way,

goes to the east till he reaches the pole, and back again to the

south; then he places the basket on the ground and utters some pious

ejaculation. Then an iron sickle, a stick of the sacred Kusa grass,

and a bit of swallow-wort, with a cake of cowdung in a cleft stick,

are placed on the heap, and four cakes of cowdung at the four corners;

and a line is traced round it with cowdung. A fire offering is then

made, and some butter and coarse sugar are offered as sacrifice. Water

is next thrown round the piled grain and the remainder of the sugar

distributed to those present." [838]

In the Etah District, the owner of the field places to the north of

the pile of grain a threshing-floor rake, a bullock's muzzle, and a

rope at a distance of three spans from the piled grain; and between

these things and the pile he lays a little offering consisting of

a few ears of grain, some leaves of the swallow-wort, and a few

flowers. These things are laid on a piece of cowdung. He then covers

the pile of grain with a cloth to protect it from thieving Bhûts,

and puts in a basket three handfuls of grain as the perquisite of the

village priest who lights the Holî fire. Something is also laid by for

the village beggars. Then he sprinkles a little grain on the cloth,

and fills a basket full of grain which he pours back on the pile as an

emblem of increase. He then bows to the gods who live in the northern

hills, and mutters a prayer; it is only at this time that he breaks

the silence with which the whole ceremony is performed. The cloth is

then removed, and the rite is considered complete.

Measurement of Grain.

All these precautions are based on principles which have been

already discussed, and we meet in them with the familiar fetishes and

demon-scarers, of which we have already quoted instances--the iron

implements, the sacred grasses and plants, water and milk, cowdung,

the winnowing fan, and so on.

All over Northern India a piece of cowdung, known as Barhâwan, "that

which gives the increase," is laid on the piled grain, and a sacred

circle is made with fire and water round it. Silence, as we have

already seen, is a special element in the worship. All this rests on

the idea that until the grain is measured, vagrant Bhûts will steal

or destroy it. This is something like the principle of travellers,

who keep a cowry or two in their purses, so that thieves may not

be able to divine the contents. So, in a Talmudic legend we read,

"It is very difficult for devils to obtain money, because men are

careful to keep it locked or tied up; and we have no power to take

anything that is measured or counted; we are permitted to take only

what is free and common." [839]

In the Eastern Panjâb grain must not be measured on the day of

the new or full moon, and Saturday is a bad day for it. It must be

begun at dawn, or sunset, or midnight, when the Bhûts are otherwise

engaged. Four men go inside the enclosure line with a wooden measuring

vessel, and no one must come near them till they have finished. They

sit facing the north and spread a cloth on the ground. One fills the

measure from the heap with the winnowing fan, another empties it on the

cloth, substituting an empty one for it. The man who has the measure

puts down for every measure filled a small heap of grains of corn,

by which the account is kept. Perfect silence must be observed till

the whole operation is finished, and especially all counting aloud

of the number of measures must be avoided. But when once the grain

is measured, it is safe from the Evil Eye; the people are at liberty

to quarrel over the division of it. [840]

The same rule of silence often appears in the custom of Europe. Favete

linguis was the principle on such occasions in Rome. So in the

"Tempest" Prospero says,--

"Hush and be mute,

Or else our spell is marred."

In the Highlands, on New Year's Day, a discreet person is sent to draw

a pitcher of water from the ford, which is drunk next day as a charm

against the spell of witchcraft, the malignity of Evil Eyes, and the

activity of all infernal agency. So the baker who makes the bannocks on

Shrove Tuesday must be mute as a stone; the cake on St. Mark's Eve must

be made in silence, and the same is the rule on St. Faith's Day. [841]

The same rule of secrecy and silence is observed in the worship of

Dulha Deo. Among the Gaiti Gonds, their great festival is held after

the ingathering of the rice harvest, when they proceed to a dense

part of the jungle, which no woman is permitted to enter, and where,

to represent the great god, a copper coin has been hung up, enclosed

in a joint of bamboo. Arriving at the spot, they take down the copper

god in his case, and selecting a small area about a foot square, they

lay on it the copper coin, before which they arrange as many small

heaps of uncooked rice as there are deities worshipped by them. The

chickens brought for sacrifice are loosed and permitted to feed on

the rice, after which they are killed and their blood sprinkled

between the copper coin and the rice. Goats are also offered,

and their blood presented in the same manner. Until prohibited by

the Hindus, sacrifices of cows were also common. On the blood some

country spirits is poured as a libation to their deities. The copper

coin is now lifted, replaced in its bamboo case, which is shut up with

leaves, wrapped up in grass, and returned to its place in the tree,

to remain there till it is required on the following year. [842]

The Holî: Its Origin.

The most famous and interesting of the village festivals is the Holî,

which is held in the early spring, at the full moon of Phâlgun. One

account of its origin describes it as founded in honour of a female

demon or Râkshasî called Dundhas, "she who would destroy many."

Another account connects the observance with the well-known legend of

Hiranya-kasipu, "golden-dressed," and his son Prahlâda. Hiranya-kasipu

was, it is said, a Daitya, who obtained from Siva the sovereignty of

the three worlds for a million years, and persecuted his pious son

Prahlâda because he was such a devoted worshipper of Vishnu. Finally

the angry god, in his Nara-sinha or man-lion incarnation, slew

the sinner.

Harnâkas, as the father is called in the modern version of the story,

was an ascetic, who claimed that the devotion of the world was to

be paid to him alone. His son Prahlâda became a devotee of Vishnu,

and performed various miracles, such as saving a cat and her kittens

out of the blazing kiln of a potter. His father was enraged at what

he considered the apostasy of his son, and with the assistance of his

sister Holî or Holikâ, commenced to torture Prahlâda. Many attempts on

his life failed, and finally Vishnu himself entered a pillar of heated

iron, which had been prepared for the destruction of Prahlâda, and

tore Harnâkas to pieces. Then Holî tried to burn herself and Prahlâda

together, but the fire left him unscathed and she was consumed. The

fire is now supposed to be burnt in commemoration of this tragedy.

This legend has been localized at a place called Deokali near Irichh

in the Jhânsi District, where Hiranya-kasipu is said to have had his

palace. Just below it is a deep pool, into which Prahlâda was flung

by the orders of his father, and the mark of the foot of the martyr

is still shown on a neighbouring rock. [843]

Another legend identifies Holî with the witch Pûtanâ, who attempted

to destroy the infant Krishna by giving him her poisoned nipple to

suck. [844]

Lastly, a tale told at Hardwâr brings us probably nearer the real

origin of the rite. Holikâ or Holî was, they say, sister of Sambat or

Sanvat, the Hindu year. Once, at the beginning of all things, Sambat

died, and Holî in her excessive love for her brother insisted on being

burnt on his pyre, and by her devotion he was restored to life. The

Holî fire is now burnt every year to commemorate this tragedy.

Propitiation of Sunshine.

There seems to be little doubt that the custom of burning the Holî

fire rests on the same basis as that of similar observances in

Europe. The whole subject has recently been copiously illustrated by

Mr. J. G. Frazer. [845] His conclusion is that "they are sun charms

or magical ceremonies intended to ensure a proper supply of sunshine

for men, animals, and plants. We have seen that savages resort to

charms for making sunshine, and we need not wonder that primitive

man in Europe has done the same. Indeed, considering the cold and

cloudy climate of Europe during a considerable portion of the year,

it is natural that sun charms should have played a much more prominent

part among the superstitious practices of European peoples than among

those of savages who live near the equator. This view of the festival

in question is supported by various considerations drawn partly from

the rites themselves, partly from the influences they are believed

to exert on the weather and on vegetation. For example, the custom of

rolling a burning wheel down a hill-side, which is often observed on

these occasions, seems a very natural imitation of the sun's course

in the sky, and the imitation is particularly appropriate on Midsummer

Day, when the sun's annual declension begins. Not less graphic is the

imitation of his apparent revolution by swinging a burning tar barrel

round a pole. The custom of throwing blazing discs, shaped like suns,

into the air, is probably also a piece of imitative magic." [846]

In these, as in so many cases, the magic force is supposed to take

effect through mimicry or sympathy.

It is true, of course, that the climatic conditions of Northern India

do not, as a rule, necessitate the use of incantations to produce

sunshine. But it must be remembered that the native of the country does

not look on the fierceness of the summer sun with the same dread as is

felt by Europeans. To him it is about the most pleasant and healthy

season of the year, and people who are sometimes underfed and nearly

always insufficiently dressed have more reason to fear the chills

of December and January than the warmth of May and June. It is also

usually recognized in popular belief that seasonable and sufficient

rainfall depends on the due supply of sunshine.

The Holî Observances.

The Holî, while generally observed in Northern India, is performed

with special care by the cowherd classes of the land of Braj, or the

region round the city of Mathura, where the myth of Krishna has been

localized, and it is here that we meet with some curious incidents

which are undoubtedly survivals of the most primitive usages.

The ceremonies in vogue at Mathura have been very carefully recorded

by Mr. Growse. [847] He notes "the cheeriness of the holiday-makers

as they throng the narrow, winding streets on their way to and

from the central square of the town of Barsâna, where they break

into groups of bright and ever varying combinations of colour, with

the buffooneries of the village clowns, and the grotesque dances of

the lusty swains, who, with castanets in hand, caricature in their

movements the conventional graces of the Indian ballet girl.

"Then follows a mock fight between the men of the adjoining village

of Nandgânw and the women of Barsâna. The women have their mantles

drawn down over their faces and are armed with long, heavy bamboos,

with which they deal their opponents many shrewd blows on the head and

shoulders. The latter defend themselves as best they can with round

leather shields and stag horns, as they dodge in and out among the

crowd, and now and again have their flight cut off, and are driven

back upon the crowd of excited viragoes. Many laughable incidents

occur. Not unfrequently blood is drawn; but an accident of this kind

is regarded rather as an omen of good fortune, and has never been

known to give rise to any ill-feeling. Whenever the fury of their

female assailants appears to be subsiding, it is again excited by

the men shouting at them snatches of ribald rhymes."

The Lighting of the Holî Fire.

Next day the Holî fire is lit. By immemorial custom, the boys are

allowed to appropriate fuel of any kind for the fire, the wood-work

of deserted houses, fences, and the like, and the owner never dares

to complain. We have the same custom in England. The chorus of the

Oxfordshire song sung at the feast of Gunpowder Plot runs,--

A stick and a stake

For King James's sake;

If you won't give me one,

I'll take two,

The better for me,

The worse for you.

This is chanted by the boys when collecting sticks for the bonfire,

and it is considered quite lawful to appropriate any old wood they

can lay hands on after the recitation of these lines. [848]

Mr. Growse goes on to describe how a large bonfire had been stacked

between the pond and the temple of Prahlâda (who, as we have already

seen, is connected with the legend), inside which the local village

priest, the Kherapat or Panda, who was to take the chief part in the

performance of the day, was sitting, telling his beads. At 6 p.m. the

pile was lit, and being composed of the most inflammable materials,

at once burst into a tremendous blaze. The lads of the village

kept running close round it, jumping and dancing and brandishing

their bludgeons, while the Panda went round and dipped in the pond,

and then with his dripping turban and loin-cloth ran back and made a

feint of passing through the fire. In reality he only jumped over the

outermost verge of the smouldering ashes, and then dashed into his cell

again, much to the dissatisfaction of the spectators, who say that the

former incumbent used to do it much more thoroughly. If on the next

recurrence of the festival the Panda shows himself equally timid, the

village proprietors threaten to eject him as an impostor from the land

which he holds rent-free, simply on the score of his being fire-proof.

It is hardly necessary to say that this custom of jumping through the

fire prevails in many other places. We have already had an instance

of it in the case of the fire worship of Râhu. In Greece people jump

through the bonfires lighted on St. John's Eve. The Irish make their

cattle pass through the fire, and children are passed through it in

the arms of their fathers. The passing of victims through the fire

in honour of Moloch is well known. [849]

The Throwing of the Powder.

In the Indian observance of the Holî next followed a series of

performances characterized by rude horseplay and ribald singing. Next

day came the throwing of the powder. "Handfuls of red powder, mixed

with glistening talc, were thrown about. Up to the balconies, above

and down on the heads of the people below; and seen through this

atmosphere of coloured cloud, the frantic gestures of the throng,

their white clothes and faces all stained with red and yellow patches,

and the great timbrels with branches of peacocks' feathers, artificial

flowers and tinsel stars stuck in their rims, borne above the players'

heads, and now and then tossed up in the air, combined to form a

curious and picturesque spectacle."

Then followed another mock fight between men and women, conducted

with perfect good-humour on both sides, and when it was all over,

many of the spectators ran into the arena, and rolled over and over

in the dust, or streaked themselves with it on the forehead, taking

it as the dust hallowed by the feet of Krishna and the Gopîs.

The Holî in Mârwâr.

Colonel Tod gives an interesting account of the festival as performed

at Mârwâr. He describes the people as lighting large fires into which

various substances, as well as the common powder, were thrown; and

around which groups of children danced and screamed in the streets,

"like so many infernals; until three hours after sunrise of the

new moon of the month of Chait, these orgies are continued with

increased vigour; when the natives bathe, change their garments,

worship, and return to the ranks of sober citizens, and princes and

chiefs receive gifts from their domestics." [850]

The Ashes of the Holî Fire.

The belief in the efficacy of the Holî fire in preventing the blight

of crops, and in the ashes as a remedy for disease, has been already

noticed. So in England, the Yule log was put aside, and was supposed

to guard the house from evil spirits. [851]

The Basis of the Holî Rite.

We have seen that the primary basis of this and similar rites is

probably the propitiation of sunshine. But the present observances in

India are probably a survival of a very much more primitive cultus. We

have already seen that in one form of the popular legend, Holî is the

sister of Sambat, the year, and revived him from death by burning

herself with his corpse. We find the same idea in Nepâl, where a

wooden post adorned with flags is erected in front of the palace,

and this is burned at night, representing the burning of the body of

the old year, and its re-birth with each succeeding spring. [852]

The Drâvidian Hill tribes of Mirzapur do not perform the Holî ceremony

like their Hindu neighbours, but on the same date the Baiga burns a

stake, a ceremony which is known as Sambat Jalânâ, or "the burning

of the old year."

In Kumaun each clan puts up the Chîr or rag-tree. A middle-sized tree

or a large branch is cut down and stripped of its leaves. Young men

go round and beg scraps of cloth, which are tied to the tree, and it

is then set up in the middle of the village. Near it the Holî fire

is burnt. On the last day the tree itself is burnt, and the people

jump over the ashes as a cure for itch and similar diseases. While

the tree is burning, men of other clans try to snatch away some of

the rags. It is regarded as being very propitious to be able to do

this, and the clan which loses is not allowed to set up the tree

again. Faction fighting in order to gain the right of setting up the

tree has practically ceased under British law. [853]

The ceremony in another form appears at Gwâlior. There, instead of

a tree, they burn large heaps of cowdung fuel. The Marwâris erect a

nude figure known as Nathurâm, made of bricks, of a most disgusting

shape. This, when the pile of cowdung cakes is consumed, is broken to

pieces with blows of shoes and bludgeons. Another beautifully carved

image of the same kind is paraded through the bazars and kept safely

from year to year. This Nathurâm is said to have been a scamp from

some part of Northern India, who went to Mârwâr and seduced a number

of women, until he was detected and put to death. He then became a

malignant ghost and began to torment women and children, and now his

spirit can be appeased only by a series of indecent songs and gestures

performed by the women. No Mârwâri household is without an image of

Nathurâm, and a representation of him is laid with the married pair

after the wedding, while barren women and those whose children die

pray to him for offspring. He is in short a phallic fetish.

The Holî, then, in its most primitive form, is possibly an aboriginal

usage which has been imported into Brâhmanism. This is specially

shown by the functions of the Kherapat or village priest, who lights

the fire. He is sometimes a Brâhman, but often a man drawn from the

lower races. As we have seen, his duties among the Drâvidian races

are performed by the Baiga, who is always drawn from the non-Aryan

races. It seems probable that the legends connecting the rite with

Prahlâda and Krishna are a subsequent invention, and that the fire

is really intended to represent the burning of the old year and

the re-birth of the new, which they pray may be more propitious to

the families, cattle, and crops of the worshippers. The observance

seems also to include certain ceremonies intended to scare the evil

spirits which bring disease and famine. The compulsory entry of the

local priests into the fire can hardly be anything but a survival of

human sacrifice, intended to secure the same results; and the dancing,

singing, waving of flags, screaming, the mock fight, and the throwing

of red powder, a colour supposed, as we have seen, to be obnoxious

to evil spirits, are probably based on the same train of ideas.

Finally comes the indecency of word and gesture, which is a distinct

element in the rite. There seems reason to believe that in the worship

of certain deities in spring, promiscuous intercourse was regarded

as a necessary part of the ceremony. [854] This appears at what is

called the Kâhi ka Mela in Kulu, in which indecency is supposed to

scare evil spirits. [855] We have already noticed the practice of

indecency as a rain charm, and it seems at least a plausible hypothesis

that the unchecked profligacy which prevails among the Hindus at the

spring feast and at the Kajalî in autumn may be intended to repel evil

spirits which check the fecundity of men, animals, and crops. The same

idea probably also underlies the licentious observance of the Karama

among the Drâvidian races. The same theory explains similar usages in

Europe, such as the Lupercalia, Festum Stultorum, Matronalia Festa,

Liberalia, and our own All Fools' Day, where the indecent part of the

performance has disappeared under the influence of a purer faith and

a higher morality, and a little kindly merriment is its only survival.

Of the mock fight as a charm for rain we have spoken already, and at

the Holî it may be merely a fertility charm. Of these mock fights

we have numerous instances in the customs of Northern India. Thus,

in Kumaun, in former days at the Bagwâh festival the males of several

villages used to divide into two bodies and sling stones at each other

across a stream. The results were so serious that it was suppressed

after the British occupation of the country. [856] The people in some

places attribute the increase of cholera and other plagues to its

discontinuance. In the plains, the custom survives in what is known

as the Barra, when the men of two villages have a sort of Tug of War

with a rope across the boundary of the village. Plenty is supposed

to follow the side which is victorious.

Another of these spring rites is that known as the Râli ka Mela in

Kângra, the Râli being a sort of rude image of Siva or Pârvatî. The

girls of the village in March take baskets of Dûb grass and flowers,

of which they make a heap in a selected place. Round this they walk and

sing for ten days, and then they erect two images of Siva and Pârvatî,

who are married according to the regular rites. At the conjunction or

Sankrânt in the month of Baisâkh the images are flung into a pool and

mock funeral obsequies are performed. The object of the ceremonial

is said to be to secure a good husband. [857]

In Gorakhpur this spring rite takes the form of hunting and crucifying

a monkey on the village boundary. This is said to be intended to

scare these animals, which injure the crops. But the rite seems to

be intended to secure fertility, and is possibly the survival of an

actual sacrifice.

Of the same class is what is known in the Hills as the Badwâr rite,

where a Dom, one of the menial castes, is made to slide down a rope

from a high precipice. The intention is to promote the fertility of

the crops and expel the demons of disease.

Marriage of the Powers of Vegetation.

Mr. Frazer has collected instances of the marriage of the powers of

vegetation, of which we have a survival in the English King and Queen

of the May. This seems to be the explanation of the remarkable rite

among the Kharwârs, of which Mr. Forbes has given an account. [858]

"One of the most remarkable of the Kharwâr deities is called Durgâgiya

Deotâ; this spirit rejoices in the name of Mûchak Rânî. She is a

Chamârin by caste, and her home is on a hill called Buhorâj; her

priests are Baigas. All the Kharwârs regard her with great veneration,

and offer up pigs and fowls to her several times during the year. Once

a year, in the month of Aghan, what is called the Kâruj Pûjâ takes

place in her honour.

"The ceremony is performed in the village threshing-floor, when a kind

of bread and kids are offered up. Once in three years the ceremony of

marrying the Rânî is performed with great pomp. Early in the morning of

the bridal day both men and women assemble with drums and horns, form

themselves into procession and ascend the hill, singing a wild song in

honour of the bride and bridegroom. One of the party is constituted

the priest, who is to perform the wedding ceremony. This man ascends

the hill in front of the procession, shouting and dancing till he

works himself into a frenzy. The procession halts at the mouth of a

cave, which does, or is supposed to, exist on the top of the hill. The

priest then enters the cave and returns bearing with him the Rânî, who

is represented as a small oblong-shaped and smooth stone, daubed over

with red lead. After going through certain antics, a piece of Tasar

silk cloth is placed on the Rânî's head, and a new sheet is placed

below her, the four corners being tied up in such a manner as to

allow the Rânî, who is now supposed to be seated in her bridal couch,

to be slung on a bamboo, and carried like a dooly or palanquin.

"The procession then descends the hill and halts under a Banyan tree

till noon, when the marriage procession starts for the home of the

bridegroom, who resides on the Kandi hill.

"On their arrival there, offerings, consisting of sweetened milk,

two copper pice, and two bell-metal wristlets, are presented to

the bride, who is taken out of her dooly and put into the cave in

which the bridegroom, who, by the way, is of the Agariya caste,

resides. This cave is supposed to be of immense depth, for the stone

goes rolling down, striking the rocks as it falls, and the people

all listen eagerly till the sound dies out, which they say it does

not do for nearly half an hour.

"When all is silent, the people return rejoicing down the hill,

and finish off the evening with a dance. The strangest part of the

story is that the people believe that the caves on the two hills are

connected, and that every third year the Rânî returns to her father's

house. They implicitly believe that the stone yearly produced is the

same. The village Baigas could probably explain the mystery.

"In former times the marriage used to take place every year, but

on one occasion, on the morning succeeding the marriage ceremony,

the Rânî made her appearance in the Baiga's house. The Baiga himself

was not present, but his wife, who was at home, was very indignant

at this flightiness on the part of the Rânî, and the idea of her

going about the country the morning after her marriage so shocked the

Baigâin's sense of propriety, that she gave the Rânî a good setting

down, and called upon her to explain herself, and as she could give

no satisfactory account of her conduct, she was punished by being

married every three years, instead of yearly as before."

The mock marriage of Ghâzi Miyân, to which some reference has been

already made, a very favourite rite among the Musalmâns and low Hindu

castes of the North-Western Provinces, is very possibly the survival

of some non-Aryan rite of this kind, performed to secure the annual

revival of the year and the powers of vegetation.

The Drâvidian Saturnalia.

Some of the Drâvidian tribes enjoy the Saturnalia in other forms.

Thus, the Gond women have the curious festival known as Gurtûtnâ or

"breaking of the sugar." "A stout pole about twelve or fifteen feet

high is set up, and a lump of coarse sugar with a rupee in it placed

on the top; round it the Gond women take their stand, each with a

little green tamarind rod in her hands. The men collect outside,

and each has a kind of shield made of two parallel sticks joined

with a cross-piece held in the hand to protect themselves from the

blows. They make a rush together, and one of them swarms up the pole,

the women all the time plying their rods vigorously; and it is no

child's play, as the men's backs attest next day. When the man gets

to the top, he takes the piece of sugar, slips down, and gets off

as rapidly as he can. This is done five or six times over with the

greatest good-humour, and generally ends with an attack of the women

en masse upon the men. It is the regular Saturnalia for the women,

who lose all respect, even for a settlement officer; and on one

occasion when he was looking on, he only escaped by the most abject

submission and presentation of rupees." [859]

The Bhîls of Gujarât plant a small tree or branch firmly in the

ground. The women stand near it, and the men outside. One man rushing

in tries to uproot the tree, and the men and women fall upon him

and beat him so soundly that he has to retire. He is succeeded by

another, who is belaboured in the same way, and this goes on till

one man succeeds in bearing off the tree, but seldom without a load

of blows which cripples him for days. [860]

All these mock combats have their parallels in English customs, such

as the throwing of the hood at Haxey, the football match at Derby,

the fighting on Lammas Day at Lothian, and hunting of the ram at

Eton. [861]

The Desauli of the Hos.

The Hos of Chutia Nâgpur have a similar festival, the Desauli held in

January, "when the granaries are full of grain, and the people are,

to use their own expression, 'full of devilry!' They have a strange

notion that at this period men and women are so overcharged with

vicious propensities that it is absolutely necessary for the safety

of the person to let off steam by allowing for the time full vent to

the passions. The festival, therefore, becomes a sort of Saturnalia,

during which servants forget their duty to their masters, children

their reverence for their parents, men their respect for women,

and women all notions of gentleness, modesty, and delicacy; they

become raging Bacchantes. It opens with a sacrifice to Desauli of

three fowls, a cock and two hens, one of which must be black, and

offered with some flowers of the Palâsa tree (Butea frondosa), bread

made from rice flour and sesamum seeds. The sacrifice and offering

are made by the village priest, if there be one, or if not by any

elder of the village who possesses the necessary legendary lore;

and he prays that during the year they are going to enter on they

and their children may be preserved from all misfortune and sickness,

and that they may have seasonable rain and good crops. Prayer is also

made in some places for the souls of the departed. At this period an

evil spirit is supposed to infest the locality, and to get rid of it,

men, women, and children go in procession round and through every part

of the village with sticks in their hands, as if beating for game,

singing a wild chant and vociferating loudly, till they feel assured

that the bad spirit must have fled, and they make noise enough to

frighten a legion. These religious ceremonies over, the people give

themselves up to feasting, drinking immoderately of rice-beer till

they are in a state of wild ebriety most suitable for the purpose of

letting off steam." [862]

With these survivals of perhaps the most primitive observances of the

races of Northern India we may close this survey of their religion and

folk-lore. To use Dr. Tylor's words in speaking of savage religions

generally, "Far from its beliefs and practices being a rubbish heap

of miscellaneous folly, they are consistent and logical in so high a

degree as to begin, as soon as even roughly classified, to display the

principles of their formation and development; and these principles

prove to be essentially rational, though working in a mental condition

of intense and inveterate ignorance." [863]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

"Academy," the, London, v.d.

"Aîn-i-Akbari," translation by Professor Blochmann and Colonel Jarrett,

Calcutta, v.d.

"Asiatic Quarterly Review," London, v.d.

"Asiatic Researches," Calcutta, v.d.

"Athenæum," London, v.d.

Atkinson, E. T., "Himâlayan Gazetteer," 3 vols., Allahabad, 1882-84.

Aubrey, J., "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme," edited by

J. Britten, Folk-lore Society, London, 1881.

Ball, V., "Jungle Life in India," London, 1880.

Barth, A., "Religions of India," London, 1882.

Beal, S., "Travels of Fah Hian and Sangyun," London, 1869.

Beale, T. W., "Oriental Biographical Dictionary," Calcutta, 1887.

Benjamin, S. G. W., "Persia and the Persians," London, 1887.

Bernier, F., "Travels in the Moghul Empire," edited by A. Constable,

London, 1891.

Bholanâth Chandra, "Travels of a Hindu," 2 vols., London, 1869.

Black, G. B., "Folk Medicine," Folk-lore Society, London, 1883.

Brand, J., "Observations on Popular Antiquities," London, 1877.

Briggs, Lieut.-Col. J., "History of the rise and fall of the Muhammadan

Power in India till the year 1612, by Muhamad Qâsim Farishta," 4 vols.,

London, 1829.

Buchanan, F. H., "Eastern India," 3 vols., London, 1833.

Burton, R., "Anatomy of Melancholy," London, 1883.

Burton, Sir R., "Arabian Nights," 12 vols., London, 1894.

"Calcutta Review," Calcutta, v.d.

Campbell, A., "Santâl Folk-tales," Pokhuria, 1891.

Campbell, J. F., "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," Glasgow,

4 vols., 1890.

Campbell, Major-General J., "A Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years'

Service among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan," London, 1864.

Campbell, J. S., "Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom,"

Bombay, 1885.

Carnegy, P., "Notes on the Races, Tribes and Castes inhabiting the

Province of Oudh," Lucknow, 1868.

Chambers, R., "Book of Days," 2 vols., London, n. d.

Chevers, N., "A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India," Calcutta,

1870.

Clouston, "Popular Tales and Fictions," 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1887.

Colebrooke, H. P., "Miscellaneous Essays," London, 1837.

"Contemporary Review," the, London, v.d.

Conway, M. D., "Demonology and Demon Lore," 2 vols., London, 1879.

Cooper, W. M., "Flagellation and the Flagellants," London, 1870.

Cox, Sir G. W., "Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology

and Folk-lore," London, 1881.

Cox, Sir G. W., "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," 2 vols., London,

1870.

Cox, Miss M. R., "Cinderella," Folk-lore Society, London, 1893.

Cunningham, Major-General A., "Archæological Survey Reports,"

Calcutta, v.d.

Cunningham, Major-General A., "The Bhilsa Topes, a Buddhist Monument

in Central India," London, 1854.

"Dabistân," the, Translation of, by D. Shea and A. Troyer, Paris, 1843.

Dalton, Col. E. T., "Descriptive Ethnology of India," Calcutta, 1872.

Dey, Lâl Bihâri, "Folk-tales of Bengal," London, 1879.

Dey, Lâl Bihâri, "Govinda Sâmanta," London, 1874.

De Gubernatis, A., "Zoological Mythology, or the Legends of Animals,"

2 vols., London, 1872.

Dowson, Professor J., "A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and

Religion, Biography, History and Literature," London, 1879.

Duncker, Max, "The History of Antiquity," translation by E. Abbot,

5 vols., London, 1877-83.

Dutt, R. C, "History of Civilization in Ancient India," 3 vols.,

Calcutta, 1889.

Dyer, T. F. T., "Popular Customs," London, 1876.

Dyer, T. F. T., "Folk-lore of Shakespeare," London, 1883.

Elliot, Sir H. M., "Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms,"

Roorkee, 1860.

Elliot, Sir H. M., "History of India as told by its own Historians,"

edited by Professor Dowson, 8 vols., London, 1867-77.

Elliott, Sir C. A., "Settlement Report of Hoshangâbâd," Allahabad,

1867.

"Encyclopædia Britannica," 9th edition, Edinburgh, 1875.

Ewald, H., "Antiquities of Israel," translation by H. S. Solly,

London, 1876.

Ewald, G. H. A., "The History of Israel," translation by R. Martineau,

4th edition, London, 1867-85.

Farrer, J. A., "Primitive Manners and Customs," London, 1879.

Fausböll, V., "The Buddhist Jâtakas," Copenhagen, 1861.

Ferguson, J., "History of Indian Architecture," London, 1878.

Ferguson, J., "Tree and Serpent Worship," London, 1868.

Ferrier, J. P., "Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia,

Afghânistân, Turkestân and Belûchistân," London, 1856.

"Folk-lore," London, v.d.

"Folk-lore Record," London, v.d.

Forbes, H. O., "A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago,"

London, 1885.

Forbes, J., "Oriental Memoirs," London, 1813.

Forlong, J. G. R., "Rivers of Life," 2 vols., London, 1883.

Forsyth, Captain J., "Highlands of Central India," 2nd edition,

London, 1889.

"Fortnightly Review," London, v.d.

Frazer, J. G., "The Golden Bough," 2 vols., London, 1890.

Frazer, J. G., "Totemism," London, 1887.

Frere, Miss M., "Old Deccan Days," London, 1870.

Führer, A., "Monumental Antiquities and Inscriptions of the North-West

Provinces and Oudh," Allahabad, 1891.

Ganga Datt Upreti, "Proverbs and Folk-lore of Kumaun and Garhwâl,"

Ludhiana, 1894.

"Gazetteer of Berâr," Bombay, 1870.

"Gazetteer of Bombay," Bombay, v.d.

"Gazetteer of Central Provinces," Nagpur, 1870.

"Gazetteer of Himâlayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces,"

by E. T. Atkinson, 3 vols., Allahabad, 1882-84.

"Gazetteer of Oudh," 3 vols., Allahabad, 1870.

"Gazetteer of Râjputâna," 3 vols., Calcutta, v.d.

"Gesta Romanorum," translation by C. Swan and W. Hooper, London, 1888.

Goldziher, I., "Mythology among the Hebrews," translation by

J. Martineau, London, 1877.

Gordon-Cumming, Miss C. F., "From the Hebrides to the Himalayas,"

2 vols., London, 1876.

Gregor, Rev. W., "Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of

Scotland," Folk-lore Society, London, 1881.

Grierson, G., "Bihâr Peasant Life," Calcutta, 1885.

Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology," translation by J. S. Stallybrass, 4 vols.,

London, 1880-88.

Grimm, "Household Tales," translated by Margaret Hunt, 2 vols.,

London, 1884.

Grote, G., "History of Greece," 12 vols., London, 1869.

Growse, F. S., "Mathura, a District Memoir," Allahabad, 1885.

Growse, F. S., "Râmâyan of Tulasi Dâs," Allahabad, 1877-80.

Gunthorpe, Major E. J., "Notes on the Criminal Tribes of Bombay,

Berar and the Central Provinces," Bombay, 1882.

Hardy, E. S., "Manual of Buddhism," London, 1880.

Hartland, E. S., "Science of Fairy Tales," London, 1891.

Hartland, E. S., "Legend of Perseus," London, 1894-95.

Haug, M., "Aitareya Brâhmanam of the Rig Veda," 2 vols., Bombay, 1863.

Hearn, W. E., "The Aryan Household," London, 1879.

Heber, Bishop R., "Narrative of a journey through the Upper Provinces

of India," 2 vols., London, 1861.

Henderson, W., "Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of

England and the Border," Folk-lore Society, London, 1879.

Herklots, G. A., "Qânûn-i-Islâm," Madras, 1863.

Herodotus, translated by G. Rawlinson, 4 vols., 3rd edition, London,

1875.

Hewitt, J. F., "The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times," London, 1894.

Hislop, Rev. S., "Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the

Central Provinces," Nagpur, 1866.

Hughes, T. P., "Dictionary of Islâm," London, 1885.

Hunt, R., "Popular Romances of the West," 3rd edition, London, 1881.

Ibbetson, D. C. J., "Panjâb Ethnography," Calcutta, 1883.

"Indian Antiquary," the, Bombay, v.d.

Jacobs, J., "Celtic Fairy Tales," London, 1892.

Jacobs, J., "English Fairy Tales," London, 1890.

Jacobs, J., "Indian Fairy Tales," London, 1891.

Jones, W., "Finger-ring Lore," London, 1877.

Knowles, J. H., "Folk-tales of Kashmîr," London, 1888.

Lane, E. W., "Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern

Egyptians," 2 vols., London, 1871.

Lang, A., "Custom and Myth," London, 1885.

Lang, A., "Myth, Ritual and Religion," London, 1887.

Leland, C. G., "Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition,"

London, 1892.

Letourneau, C., "Sociology based on Ethnography," London, 1881.

Lubbock, Sir J., "Origin of Civilization and Primitive Condition of

Man," London, 1882.

Lyall, Sir A. C., "Asiatic Studies," London, 1882.

Maclagan, E. D., "Panjâb Census Report," Calcutta, 1892.

Malcolm, Sir J., "Memoir of Central India," 2 vols., London, 1823.

Manning, Mrs., "Ancient and Mediæval India," 2 vols., London, 1869.

"Manu, Institutes of," translated by Sir W. Jones and G. C. Haughton,

London, 1869.

"Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London," 3 vols., London,

1865-70.

Mîr Hasan Ali, Mrs., "Observations on the Musalmâns of India," 2 vols.,

London, 1832.

Moens, S. M., "Bareilly Settlement Report," Allahabad, 1874.

Muir, J., "Original Sanskrit Texts," 5 vols., London, 1868-70.

Müller, F. Max, "Chips from a German Workshop," 4 vols., London, 1867.

Müller, F. Max, "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," London, 1859.

"North Indian Notes and Queries," Allahabad, v.d.

O'Brien, E., "Glossary of the Multâni Language," Lahore, 1881.

Oldfield, H. A., "Sketches from Nepâl," 2 vols., London, 1880.

Oldham, W., "Memoirs of the Ghâzipur District," 2 vols., Allahabad,

1870-76.

"Panjâb Notes and Queries," 4 vols., Allahabad, 1883-87.

"Proceedings Asiatic Society of Bengal," Calcutta, v.d.

"Proceedings Royal Asiatic Society," London, v.d.

Rajendra Lâla Mitra, "Indo-Aryans," 2 vols., London and Calcutta, 1881.

Reid, J. R., "Azamgarh Settlement Report," Allahabad, 1881.

Rhys, J., "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as

illustrated by Celtic Heathendom," London, 1888.

Risley, H. H., "Tribes and Castes of Bengal," 2 vols., Calcutta, 1891.

Robertson-Smith, W., "Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia," Cambridge,

1885.

Rousselet, L., "India and its Native Princes," London, 1890.

Rowney, H. B. (Shoshee Chunder Dutt), "Wild Tribes of India,"

London, 1882.

Schliemann, H., "Ilios," London, 1880.

Schrader, O., "Prehistoric Antiquities," London, 1890.

Scott, Sir W., "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft," London, 1884.

Sherring, M. A., "The Sacred City of the Hindus," London, 1868.

Sherring, M. A., "Hindu Tribes and Castes," 3 vols., Calcutta, 1872-81.

Sleeman, W. H., "Journey Through the Kingdom of Oudh," 2 vols.,

London, 1858.

Sleeman, W. H., "Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official,"

2 vols., edited by V. A. Smith, London, 1893.

Spencer, H., "Principles of Sociology," 3rd edition, 2 vols.,

London, 1885.

Starcke, C. N., "The Primitive Family," London, 1889.

Stokes, Miss M., "Indian Fairy Tales," London, 1880.

Tawney, C. H., "Katha Sarit Sâgara," 2 vols., Calcutta, 1880.

Temple, R. C., "Legends of the Panjâb," Bombay, v.d.

Temple, R. C., "Proper Names of Panjâbis," Bombay, 1883.

Temple, R. C., "Wideawake Stories," Bombay, 1884.

Tennent, Sir J. E., "Ceylon," 2nd edition, 2 vols., 1859.

Thomas, E., "Chronicles of the Pathân Kings of Delhi," London, 1871.

"Thugs, Illustrations of the History and Practices of the," London,

1837.

Tod, J., "Annals and Antiquities of Râjasthân," 2 vols., Calcutta,

1884.

Trumbull, H. C., "The Blood Covenant," London, 1887.

Tylor, E. B., "Researches into the Early History of Mankind,"

London, 1865.

Tylor, E. B., "Primitive Culture," 2 vols., London, 1873.

Wake, C. S., "Serpent-worship," London, 1888.

Ward, W., "View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the

Hindus," Madras, 1863.

Westropp, H. M., "Primitive Symbolism," London, 1885.

Wheeler, J. T., "History of India," 3 vols., London, 1867-74.

Whitney, W. D., "Oriental and Linguistic Studies," New York, 1873.

Wilde, Lady, "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of

Ireland," London, 1888.

Williams, Sir Monier, "Sanskrit-English Dictionary," Oxford, 1872.

Williams, Sir Monier, "Brâhmanism and Hinduism," 4th edition,

London, 1891.

Wilson, J., "Indian Caste," 2 vols., Bombay, 1877.

Wilson, H. H., "Works," 12 vols., London, 1862-71.

Wilson, H. H., "Vishnu Purâna," London, 1840.

Wilson, J., "Karnâl Settlement Report," Lahore, 1886.

Wright, D., "History of Nepâl," Cambridge, 1877.

Wright, F. N., "Memorandum on the Agriculture of Cawnpur," Allahabad,

1877.

Yule, H., "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," 2 vols., London, 1871.

NOTES

[1] For some of the literature of the Evil Eye see Tylor, "Early

History," 134; Henderson, "Folk-lore of the Northern Counties," 187

sq.; Westropp, "Primitive Symbolism," 58 sqq.; Gregor, "Folk-lore of

North-East Scotland," 8.

[2] "Natural History," vii. 2.

[3] Ibbetson, "Panjâb Ethnography," 117.

[4] Lady Wilde, "Legends," 24.

[5] Campbell, "Notes," 207.

[6] On this see valuable notes by W. Cockburn in "Panjâb Notes and

Queries," i. 14.

[7] For many lists of such names see Temple, "Proper Names of

Panjâbis," 22 sqq.; "Indian Antiquary," viii. 321 sq.; x. 321 sq.;

"Panjâb Notes and Queries," i.26, 51; iii. 9.

[8] Gregor, "Folk-lore of North-East Scotland," 35.

[9] "Folk-lore," iii. 85.

[10] Lady Wilde, "Legends," 20.

[11] "Folk-lore," i. 273; Spencer, "Principles of Sociology," i. 242;

Lubbock, "Origin of Civilization," 243; Farrer, "Primitive Manners,"

119 sq.

[12] "Notes," 400.

[13] Cunningham, "Archæological Reports," vii. 6.

[14] "Folk-lore," ii. 179.

[15] "Bombay Gazetteer," v. 45 sq.

[16] "Folk-lore," iv. 147.

[17] "Panjâb Notes and Queries," ii. 42.

[18] Leland, "Etruscan Roman Remains," 53.

[19] Gregor, "Folk-lore of North-East Scotland," 7.

[20] Brand, "Observations," 753.

[21] Campbell, "Notes," 184.

[22] "Notes," 34.

[23] Gregor, "Folk-lore of North-East Scotland," 5, 60, 62.

[24] Reg. vs. Lalla, "Nizâmat Adâlat Reports," 22nd September, 1853.

[25] Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," ii. 281.

[26] "Folk-lore," i. 154.

[27] Tawney, "Katha Sarit Sâgara," i. 386, 575; ii. 64.

[28] Brand, "Observations," 339.

[29] "Primitive Manners," 293.

[30] Lady Wilde, "Legends," 181.

[31] "Etruscan Roman Remains," 264.

[32] "Bombay Gazetteer," v. 123; and for another instance, see Jarrett,

"Aîn-i-Akbari," ii. 197.

[33] Lâl Bihâri Dê, "Folk-tales," 108 sqq.; Wilson, "Indian Caste,"

ii. 174.

[34] Campbell, "Notes," 69.

[35] Brand, "Observations," 344, 733.

[36] v. 21.

[37] For further examples see Campbell, "Notes," 126 sqq.