North Indian Popular Religion: 05 –Worshipping the air and the seasons
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The Spirits of the Air
“Aerial spirits or devils are such as keep quarter in the air, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain wool, frogs, etc. They cause whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms, which though our meteorologists refer to natural causes, yet I am of Bodin’s mind that they are more often caused by those aerial devils in their several quarters.”153 This statement of Burton is a good summary of current Hindu opinion on this subject; and it is just this class of physical phenomena which civilized man admits to be beyond his control, that primitive races profess to be able to regulate.
As Dr. Taylor puts it—“The rainfall is passing [66]from the region of the supernatural to join the tides and seasons in the realm of physical science.”154
The old weather god was Indra, who wars with Vritra or Ahi, the dragon demon of drought, whom he compels to dispense the rain. He was revered as the causer of fertility, and feared as the lord of the lightning and the thunder. He has now been deposed from his pre-eminence, and is little more than a roi fainéant, who lives in a luxurious heaven of his own, solaced by the dances of the fairies who form his court, one of whom he occasionally bestows on some favoured mortal who wins his kindness or forces him to obey his orders.
But his status is at present decidedly low, and it is remarkable in what a contemptuous way even so orthodox a poet as Tulasî Dâs speaks of him.155 Mr. Wheeler156 suggests that this degradation of Indra may possibly be due to the fact that he was a tribal god notoriously hostile to Brâhmans; and it is certainly very suggestive from this point of view that he has come to be regarded as the great deity of the Burman Buddhists. It is still further remarkable that at Benares, the headquarters of Brâhmanism, he has been replaced by a special rain god, Dalbhyeswara, who perhaps takes his name from Dalbhya, an ancient Rishi, who must be worshipped and kept properly dressed if the seasons are not to become unfavourable.157
Bhîmsen, a Weather Godling
Bhîmsen, of whom more will be said later on, is regarded by the Gonds as a god of rain, and has a festival of four or five days’ duration held in his honour at the end of the rainy season, when two poles about twenty feet high and five feet apart are set up with a rope attached to the top, by which the boys of the village climb up and then slide down the poles. This is apparently an instance of rude sympathetic magic, representing the descent of the rain.158
Demoniacal Control of the Weather
It is an idea common to the beliefs of many races, that the spirits of the wind may be tied up in sacks and let out to injure an enemy and assist a friend. To this day the Lapps give their sailors magic sacks containing certain winds to secure them a safe journey.159
Another side of the matter may be illustrated from Marco Polo. “During the three months of every year that the Lord (Kublai Khân) resides at that place, if it should happen to be bad weather, there are certain crafty enchanters and astrologers in his train, who are such adepts in necromancy and the diabolical arts, that they are able to prevent any cloud or storm passing over the spot on which the Emperor’s palace stands. Whatever they do in this way is by the help of the Devil; but they make those people believe that it is compassed by their own sanctity and the help of God.
They always go in a state of dirt and uncleanness, devoid of respect for themselves or for those who see them, unkempt and sordidly attired.” Timûr in his “Memoirs” speaks of the Indian Jâts using incantations to produce heavy rain, which hindered his cavalry from acting against them.
A Yadachi was captured, and when his head had been taken off the storm ceased. Bâbar speaks of one of his early friends, Khwâjaka Mulai, who was acquainted with Yadagarî, or the art of bringing on rain and snow by incantations. In the same way in Nepâl the control of the weather is supposed to be vested in the Lamas.160
Rain-making and Nudity
One very curious custom of rain-making has a series of remarkable parallels in Europe. In Servia, in time of drought, a girl is stripped and covered with flowers. She dances at each house, and the mistress steps out and pours a jar of water over her, while her companions sing rain [68]songs.161 In Russia the women draw a furrow round the village, and bury at the juncture a cock, a cat, and a dog. “The dog is a demonic character in Russia, while the cat is sacred.
The offering of both seems to represent a desire to conciliate both sides.”162 Mr. Conway thinks that the nudity of the women represents their utter poverty and inability to give more to conciliate the god of the rain; or that we have here a form of the Godiva and Peeping Tom legend, “where there is probably a distant reflection of the punishment sometimes said to overtake those who gazed too curiously upon the Swan Maiden with her feathers.”163
The Godiva legend has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Hartland,164 who comes to the conclusion that it is the survival of an annual rite in honour of a heathen goddess, and closely connected with those nudity observances which we are discussing. The difficulty is, however, to account for the nudity part of the ceremony. It may possibly be based on the theory that spirits dread indecency, or rather the male and female principles.165
This may be the origin of the indecencies of word and act practised at the Holî and Kajarî festivals in Upper India, which are both closely connected with the control of the weather. Among the Ramoshis of the Dakkhin the bridegroom is stripped naked before the anointing ceremony commences, and the same custom prevails very generally in Upper India. The Mhârs of Sholapur are buried naked, even the loin-cloth being taken off. Barren women worship a naked female figure at Bijapur.
At Dayamava’s festival in the Karnâtak, women walk naked to the temple where they make their vows; and the Mâng, who carries the scraps of holy meat which he scatters in the fields to promote fertility, is also naked.166 The same idea of scaring evil [69]spirits from temples possibly accounts for much of the obscene sculpture to be found on the walls of many Hindu shrines, and it may be noted in illustration of the same principle that in Nepâl temples are decorated with groups of obscene figures as a protection against lightning.167
Rites Special to Women
Connected with the same principle it may be noted that in India, as in many other places, there are rites of the nature of the Bona Dea, in which only women take part, and from which males are excluded. In some of these rites nudity forms a part. Thus, in Italy, La Bella Marte is invoked when three girls, always stark naked, consult the cards to know whether a lover is true or which of them is likely to be married.168 A number of similar usages have been discussed by Mr. Hartland.
We have already noticed the custom of sun impregnation. Among Hindus, a woman who is barren and desires a child stands naked facing the sun and desires his aid to remove her barrenness. In one of the folk-tales the witch stands naked while she performs her spells.169
The rain custom in India is precisely the same as has been already illustrated by examples from Europe. During the Gorakhpur Famine in 1873–74, there were many accounts received of women going about with a plough by night, stripping themselves naked and dragging the plough over the fields as an invocation of the rain god. The men kept carefully out of the way while this was being done, and it was supposed that if the women were seen by the men the rite would lose its effect.
Mr. Frazer on this remarks that “it is not said they plunge the plough into a stream or sprinkle it with water. But the charm would hardly be complete without it.”170 It was on my authority that the [70]custom which Messrs. Frazer and Hartland quote was originally recorded, and I do not remember at the time hearing of this part of the ritual. Later inquiries do not point to it as part of the rite in Upper India.
It may be well to adduce other instances of this nudity rite. In Sirsa, when a horse falls sick, the cure is to kill a fowl or a he-goat and let its warm blood flow into the mouth of the animal; but if this cannot be done quickly, it is sufficient for a man to take off all his clothes and strike the horse seven times on the forehead with his shoe.171 Here the nudity and the blows with the shoe are means to drive off the demon of disease. In Chhattarpur, when rain falls a woman and her husband’s sister take off all their clothes and drop seven cakes of cow-dung into a mud reservoir for storing grain.
If a man and his maternal uncle perform the same ceremony, it is equally effective; but as a rule women do it, and the special days for the rite are Sunday and Wednesday. Here we have the custom in process of modification, males, one of whom is a relation in the female line, being substituted for the female officiants.
Another similar means of expelling the demon of disease is given by Mrs. Fanny Parkes in her curious book entitled “Wanderings of a Pilgrim in search of the Picturesque.”172 “The Hindu women in a most curious way propitiate the goddess who brings cholera into the bâzâr. They go out in the evening, about 7 p.m., sometimes two or three hundred at a time, each carrying a lota or brass vessel filled with sugar, water, cloves, etc.
In the first place they make pûjâ; then, stripping off their sheets and binding their sole petticoat round their waists, as high above the knee as it can be pulled up, they perform a most frantic sort of dance, forming themselves into a circle, while in the centre of the circle about five or six women dance entirely naked, beating their hands together over their heads, and then applying them behind with a great smack that keeps time with the [71]music, and with the song they scream out all the time, accompanied by native instruments played by men who stand at a distance, to the sound of which these women dance and sing, looking like frantic creatures.
The men avoid the place where the ceremony takes place, but here and there one or two men may be seen looking on, whose presence does not seem to molest the nut-brown dancers in the least; they shriek and sing and dance and scream most marvellously.” Here we find the rule of privacy at these nudity rites slightly modified.
Another instance of the nudity rite in connection with cattle disease comes from Jâlandhar.173 “When an animal is sick the remedy is for some one to strip himself and to walk round the patient with some burning straw or cane fibre in his hands.”
Nudity also appears to be in some places a condition of the erection of a pinnacle on a Hindu temple. “The Temple of Arang in Râêpur district and that at Deobalada were built at the same time. When they were finished and the pinnacles (kalas) had to be put on, the mason and his sister agreed to put them on simultaneously at an auspicious moment.
The day and hour being fixed by Brâhmans, the two, stripping themselves naked, according to custom on such occasions, climbed up to the top. As they got up to the top each could see the other, and each through shame jumped down into the tank close to their respective temples, where they still stand turned into stone, and are visible when the tank water falls low in seasons of drought.”174
Of the regular nudity rite in case of failure of rain, we have a recent instance from Chunâr in the Mirzapur district. “The rains this year held off for a long time, and last night (24th July, 1892) the following ceremony was performed secretly. Between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m. a barber’s wife went from door to door and invited all the women to join in ploughing. They all collected in a field from which all males were excluded.
Three women from a cultivator’s [72]family stripped off all their clothes; two were yoked to a plough like oxen, and a third held the handle. They then began to imitate the operation of ploughing. The woman who had the plough in her hand shouted, ‘O Mother Earth! bring parched grain, water and chaff. Our bellies are bursting to pieces from hunger and thirst.’ Then the landlord and village accountant approached them and laid down some grain, water and chaff in the field.
The women then dressed and went home. By the grace of God the weather changed almost immediately, and we had a good shower.”175 Here we see the ceremony elaborately organized; the privacy taboo is enforced, and the ritual is in the nature of sympathetic magic, intended to propitiate Mother Earth.
The nudity rite for the expulsion of disease is also found in Madras. “The image of Mariyamma, cut out of Margosa wood, is carried from her temple to a stone called a Baddukal, in the centre of the village, on the afternoon of the first day of the feast. A rounded stone, about six inches above the ground and about eight inches across, is to be seen just inside the gate of every village.
It is what is called the Baddukal or navel stone; it is worshipped in times of calamity, especially during periods of cattle disease; often women passing it with water pour a little on it, and every one on first going out of the village in the morning is supposed to give it some little tribute of attention.
The following day all men and women of Sûdra castes substitute garments of leaves of the Margosa, little branches tied together, for their ordinary clothes, and thus attired go with music to the goddess.”176 Here the dress may imply some form of nudity rite, or may be a reminiscence of the time when, like the Juângs of Chota Nâgpur, they wore leaf aprons. There can be little doubt that rites of this kind largely prevail in India, but, as might naturally be expected, they are very carefully concealed, and it is extremely difficult to obtain precise information about them. [73]
Other Rites to bring Rain
Besides these nudity rites there are many ways of causing rain to fall. In Kumaun when rain fails they sink a Brâhman up to his lips in a tank, and there he goes on repeating the name of Râja Indra, the god of rain, for a day or two, when rain is sure to fall; or they dig a trench five or six feet deep and make a Brâhman or a Jogi sit in it, when the god, in pity for the holy man, will relent and give rain.
Another plan is to hang a frog with his mouth open on a bamboo, and the deity pities him and brings the rain.177 In Mirzapur they turn a plough upside down and bury it in a field, rub the lingam of Mahâdeva with cow-dung, and offer water at the grave of a Brahm or bachelor Brâhman.
Among the Bhîls in time of drought women and girls go out dancing and singing with bows and arrows in their hands, and seizing a buffalo belonging to another village, sacrifice it to the goddess Kâlî. The headman of the village to which the animal belongs seldom objects to the appropriation of it. If he does, the women by abusing and threatening to shoot him always have their own way.178 Analogous to this regular rain sacrifice is the custom at Ahmadnagar, where on the bright 3rd of Baisâkh (April–May) the boys of two neighbouring villages fight with slings and stones.
The local belief is that if the fight be discontinued, rain fails, or if rain does fall that it produces a plague of rats.179 At Ahmadâbâd, again, there is a city headman, known as the Nagar Seth or “chief man of the town.” When rain holds off he has to perambulate the city walls, pouring out milk to appease Râja Indra.180 Here we reach the “sympathetic magic” type of observance under which most of the other practices may be classed, though here and there we seem to find the germ of the principle of vicarious sacrifice. Thus in the Panjâb the village girls pour down on an old woman as she passes some cow-dung dissolved in water; or an old woman is made to sit down under the [74]house-roof spout and get a wetting when it rains.
Here the idea must be that her sufferings in some way propitiate the angry god. In the Muzaffarnagar District, if rain fails, they worship Râja Indra and read the story of the Megha Râja, or king of the rain. In his name they give alms to the poor and release a young bull or buffalo. Crushed grain is cooked on the edge of a tank in his honour and in the name of the rain god Khwâja Khizr, and some offering is made to Bhûmiya, the lord of the soil. In Chhattarpur, on a wall facing the east, they paint two figures with cow-dung—one representing Indra and the other Megha Râja, with their legs up and their heads hanging down. It is supposed that the discomfort thus caused to them will compel them to grant the boon of rain. The Mirzapur Korwas, when rain fails, get the Baiga to make a sacrifice and prayer to Sûraj Deota, the Sun godling.
Another common plan in Upper India is for a gang of women to come out to where a man is ploughing and drive him and his oxen by force back to the village, where he and his cattle are well fed. Another device is to seize the blacksmith’s anvil and pitch it into a well or the village tank.
We have already given instances of the connection of wells with rainfall, such as the case of the well in Farghâna which caused rain if defiled.181 Mr. Gomme has collected several European instances of the same belief.182 The anvil is probably used for this purpose because it is regarded as a sort of fetish, and the blacksmith himself is, as we shall see later on, considered as invested with supernatural powers.
In the Panjâb, apparently on the principle of vicarious sacrifice to which reference has been already made, an earthen pot of filth is carried to the door of some old woman cursed with a bad temper, and thrown down at her threshold, which is a sacred place. If she then falls into a rage and gives vent to her feelings in abusive language, the rain will come down. The old woman is considered a [75]sort of witch, and if she is punished the influence which restrains the rain will be removed.183
There are numerous instances in which the king is held responsible for a failure of the rain. In Kângra there are some local gods whose temples are endowed with rent-free lands. When rain is wanted, these deities are ordered to provide it; and if they fail, they have to pay a fine into the Râja’s treasury. This is the way the Chinese treat their gods who refuse to do their duty.184 The song of Alha and Udal, which describes the struggle between the Hindus and the early Muhammadan invaders, is sung in Oudh to procure rain. In the Hills smart showers are attributed to the number of marriages going on at the time in the plains. The bride and bridegroom, as we shall see in the legend of Dulha Deo, are particularly exposed to the demoniacal influence of the weather. In the Eastern Districts of the North-Western Provinces the people will not kill wolves, as they say that wherever there falls a drop of a wolf’s blood the rain will be deficient.
To close this catalogue of devices to procure rain, we may note that it is a common belief that sacred stones are connected with rainfall. In the temple of Mars at Rome there was a great stone cylinder which, when there was a drought, was rolled by the priests through the town.185 In Mingrelia, to get rain they dip a holy image in water daily till it rains. In Navarre the image of St. Peter was taken to a river, where some prayed to him for rain, but others called out to duck him in the water.186 A stone in the form of a cross at Iona was used for the same purpose.187 So in India the relics of Gautama Buddha were believed to have the same influence.188 In Behâr in seasons of drought a holy stone, known as Nârâyana Chakra, is kept in a vessel of water; sometimes a piece of plantain leaf on which are written the names of one hundred and eight villages beginning with the letter K and [76]not ending in Pur is thrown into the water.189 In the same way the lingam of Mahâdeva, a thirsty deity, who needs continual cooling to relieve his distress, must be kept continually moist to avoid drought.
Not long ago when rain failed at Mirzapur, the people contributed to maintain a gang of labourers who brought water to pour on a famous lingam. The same custom prevails in Samoa.190 There, when rain was excessive, the stone representing the rain-making god was laid by the fire and kept warm till fine weather set in; but in time of drought the priest and his followers, dressed up in fine mats, went in procession to the stream, dipped the stone, and prayed for a shower.
Devices to Cause Rain to Cease
In England when rain is in excess the little children sing, “Rain! Rain! Go away! Come again on a Saturday!”
In India there are many devices intended to secure the same object. One is the reverse of the nudity charm which we have already discussed. In Madras, a woman, generally an ugly widow, is made to dance, sometimes naked, with a burning stick in her hand and facing the sky.
This is supposed to disgust Varuna, the sky god, who shrinks away from such a sight and withholds the rain.191 Other devices have the same object, to put pressure on the deities who are responsible for the excessive rain. Thus, in Muzaffarnagar the Muni or Rishi Agastya, who is a great personage in early folk-lore, is supposed to have power to stop the rain. When rain is in excess they draw a figure of him on a loin cloth and put it out in the rain. Some paint his figure on the outside of the house and let the rain wash it away.
This generally brings him to his senses and he gives relief. Another practice, which is believed to be employed by evil-minded people who are selfishly interested in a drought, is to light a lamp with melted butter and put it outside when [77]the rain-clouds collect.
The rain god is afraid to put out the sacred light, and retires. Another way in use in the Panjâb is to give an unmarried girl some oil and get her to pour it on the ground, saying, “If I pour not out the oil, mine the sin; if thou disperse not the clouds, thine the sin.” In Mirzapur it is considered a good plan to name twenty-one men who are blind of an eye, and consequently ill-omened, and make twenty-one knots in a cord and tie it under the eaves of the house. In Kumaun many devices are used to effect the same result. Some hot oil is poured into the left ear of a dog.
When the pain makes him yell it is believed that Râja Indra takes pity on him and stops the rain. Another plan is very like the Mirzapur device. Five, seven, or eleven grains of Urad pulse are placed in a piece of cloth, wrapped up and tied with a treble cord. Each grain bears the name of a blind person, known to the man who is carrying out the rite. This is known as the “binding of the blind men.”
The packet is either buried under the eaves of a house where the water drips, or put in a tree. The object is to excite the compassion of Râja Indra by their sufferings. Others take seven pieces of granite, seven grains of mustard, and seven bits of goat-dung, parch them in an oven, and then put them under the drip of the eaves. These represent the demons, who are enemies of Indra, and he is so pleased at their discomfiture that he disperses the clouds. Others fix up a harrow perpendicularly where four roads meet.
As this instrument is always used in a horizontal position, this indicates that gross injustice is being done to the world, and the rain god relents. Others when the thunder roars in the rain-clouds invoke the saint Agastya, who once drank up all the waters of the world in four sips; so all the clouds fear him and disperse when he is invoked.
Another favourite plan is to fee a Brâhman to make sixty holes in a piece of wood and run a string through all of them. While he is thus “binding up the rain” he recites spells in honour of the Sun godling, Sûraj Nârâyan, who is moved to interfere. Others take a piece of unleavened bread, go into the fields and place it on the ground; or [78]taking some sugar, rice, and other articles ordinarily used in worship to a place where four roads meet, defile them in a particularly disgusting way.
On such substances the rain is ashamed to fall. In Bombay a leaf-plate filled with cooked rice and curds is placed in some open spot where the rain can see it and avoid it. If the rain should persist in coming, a live coal is laid on a tile and placed in some open place, where it is implored to swallow the hateful rain. All these practices are magic of the ordinary sympathetic kind.192
Rain-clouds are supposed also to be under the influence of the Evil Eye, and will blow over without giving rain if the malicious glance falls upon them. Hence, when rain is needed, if any one runs out of a house bareheaded while it is raining, he is ordered in at once, or he is told to put on his cap or turban, for a bareheaded man is apt to wish involuntarily that the rain may cease, and thus injure his neighbours.
Everywhere it is believed that the Banya or cornchandler, who is interested in high prices, buries some water in an earthen pot in order to stop the rain.
Hail and Whirlwind
The hail and the whirlwind are, like most of the natural phenomena which we have been discussing, attributed to demoniacal agency. The Maruts who ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm hold a prominent place in the Veda, where they are represented as the friends and allies of Indra. Another famous tempest demon was Trinâvartta, who assumed the form of a whirlwind and carried off the infant Krishna, but was killed by the child.
Mr. Leland193 tells a curious Italian story of a peasant who killed the church sexton with his billhook because he stopped ringing the bell and thus allowed the hail to injure his vines. This illustrates a well-known principle that demons, and in particular the demon who brings the hail, can be scared by [79]noise.
Thus Aubrey tells us:194—“At Paris, when it begins to thunder and lighten, they do presently ring out the great bell at the Abbey of St. Germain, which they do believe makes it cease. When it thundered and lightened they did ring St. Adelm’s bell in Malmesbury Abbey. The curious do say that the ringing of bells exceedingly disturbs spirits.” Hence one plan of driving away the hail is to take out an iron griddle-plate and beat it with a bamboo. Here the use of iron, a well-known demon scarer, increases the efficacy of the rite.
It is also an improvement if this be done by a virgin, and in some places it is considered sufficient if when the hail falls an unmarried girl is sent out with an iron plate in her hand. Possibly following out the same train of ideas, the Kharwârs of Mirzapur, when hail falls, throw into the courtyard the wooden peg of the corn-mill, which, as we shall see, is considered possessed of certain magical powers.
In Muzaffarnagar, when hail begins they pray at once to two noted demons, Ismâîl Jogi and Nonâ Chamârin, and ring a bell in a Saiva temple to scare the demon.
Another method is to put pressure on the hail demon by the pretence of sheer physical pain. Thus in Multân it is believed that if you can catch a hailstone in the air before it reaches the ground and cut it in two with a pair of scissors the hail will abate.195 Not long ago a lady at Namî Tâl, when a hailstorm came on, saw her gardener rush into the kitchen and bring out the cook’s chopper, with which he began to make strokes on the ground where the hail was falling. It appeared on inquiry that he believed that the hail would dread being cut and cease to fall.196 In Kumaun, where hail is much dreaded, there are many devices of the same kind. Some put an axe in the open air with the edge turned up, so that the hailstones may be cut in pieces and cease falling.
Another plan is to spit at the hail as it falls, or to sprinkle the hailstones with blood drawn from some famous magician, a rite which can hardly be anything but a survival of human sacrifice. A third device is to call an enchanter and make [80]him blow a conch-shell in the direction of the hail. Others put a churn in the open air when the rain is falling, in the belief that when the hailstones touch it they will become as soft as butter. Others, again, when hail falls, send out a wizard or one possessed by some deity and make him beat the hailstones with a shoe.197
There are, again, certain persons specially in charge of the hail. Thus, “at the town of Cleonæ in Argolis there were watchmen maintained at the public expense to look out for hailstorms. When they saw a hail-cloud approaching they made a signal, whereupon the farmers turned out and sacrificed lambs and fowls. They believed that when the clouds had tasted the blood they would turn aside and go somewhere else.
If any man was too poor to afford a lamb or a fowl, he pricked his finger with a sharp instrument and offered his own blood to the clouds; and the hail, we are told, turned aside from his fields as readily as from those where it had been propitiated with the blood of victims.”198 In the same way the duty of charming away the hail is, in Kumaun, entrusted to a certain class of Brâhmans known as Woli or Oliya (ola, “hail”).
Their method is to take a dry gourd, which they fill with pebbles, grains of Urad pulse, mustard, goat-dung and seeds of cotton. This is then tied by a triple cord to the highest tree on a mountain overhanging the village. Until the crops are cut the Oliya goes to this place every day and mutters his incantations. If the crops are reaped without disaster of any kind he is liberally remunerated.199
As has been already said, whirlwinds are the work of demons. The witches in Macbeth meet in thunder, lightning and rain, they can loose and bind the winds and cause vessels to be tempest-tossed at sea.
The same principle was laid down by Pythagoras;200 and Herodotus201 describes the people of Psylli marching in a body to fight the south wind [81]which had dried up their water-tanks. In Ireland it is believed that a whirlwind denotes that a devil is dancing with a witch; or that the fairies are rushing by, intent on carrying off some victim to fairyland.
The only help is to fling clay at the passing wind, and the fairies will be compelled to drop the mortal child or the beautiful young girl they have abducted.202 A gentleman at Listowel not long ago was much astonished when a cloud of dust was being blown along a road to see an old woman rush to the side and drag handfuls of grass out of the fence, which she threw in great haste into the cloud of dust.
He inquired and learned that this was in order to give something to the fairies which were flying along in the dust. So in Italy, Spolviero is the wind spirit which flies along in the dust eddies.203
In the Panjâb Pheru204 is the deity of the petty whirlwinds which blow when the little dust-clouds rise in the hot weather. He was a Brâhman, and a long story is told of him, how he worshipped Sakhi Sarwar, was made Governor of Imânâbâd by Akbar, but he abandoned the saint and returned to his caste, whereupon he was afflicted with leprosy. When he repented he was cured by eating some magical earth and believed in the saint till he died.
His shrine is at Miyânkê, in the Lahore District, and when a Panjâbi sees a whirlwind he calls out, Bhâi Pheru, teri kâr—“May Bhâi Pheru protect us!” Another whirlwind demon, the saint Rahma, was once neglected at the wheat harvest, and he raised a whirlwind which blew for nine days in succession, and wrought such damage in the threshing-floors that since then his shrine receives the appropriate offerings. On the same principle whirlwinds are called in Bombay Bagâlya or devils.205 Among the Mirzapur Korwas, when a dust-storm comes, the women thrust the house broom, which, as we shall see, is a demon scarer, into the thatch, so that it may not be [82]blown away.
The Pankas in the same way make their women hold the thatch and throw the rice mortar and the flour-mill pivot into the courtyard. The wind is ashamed of being defeated by the power of women and ceases to blow.
Aerolites
All over the world people say that if when a meteor or falling star darts across the sky they can utter a wish before it disappears, that wish will be granted. The old Norsemen believed that it implied that a dragon was flashing through the air. In Italy206 the sight of such a body is a cure for blear eyes.
In India it is believed that the residence of a soul in heaven is proportionate to the charities done by him on earth, and when his allotted period is over he falls as an aerolite. A falling star means that the soul of some great man is passing through the air, and when people see one of these stars they thrust their five fingers into their mouths to prevent their own souls from joining his company.
Many of these aerolites are worshipped as lingams in Saiva shrines. One which fell at Sîtâmarhi in Bengal in 1880, has now been deified, and is worshipped as Adbhût-nâtha, or “the miraculous god.”207 [83]
1 On the assimilation by Rome of Celtic faiths, see Rhys, “Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom,” 2 sq.
2 Lang, “Custom and Myth,” 178.
3 Leland, “Etruscan Remains,” 9.
4 At Pushkar and Idar. Monier Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 566 sqq.
5 Devatâ in Sanskrit properly means “the state or nature of a deity, divinity,” without any very decided idea of inferiority. In modern usage it certainly has this implication.
6 “Panjâb Ethnography,” 113.
7 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” ii. 114, 342, 353; iii. 110, 112; xiii. 63; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 160; Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 6, 50, 145, 286.
8 Hunter, “Orissa,” i. 188; Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 128.
9 “Asiatic Quarterly Review,” ii. 236.
10 Sherring, “Sacred City of the Hindus,” 59, 157; Bholanâth Chandra, “Travels,” ii. 384.
11 Monier-Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 342.
12 Wilson, “Essays,” ii. 384.
13 Growse, “Mathura,” 180. The story of Joshua (x. 12–14) is an obvious parallel.
14 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 25.
15 Blochmann, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” i. 200–266.
16 Max Müller, “Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” 53, note.
17 Hall, “Vishnu Purâna,” ii. 150; “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1862, p. 112.
18 Tod, “Annals,” i. 597.
19 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 130, 132, 133, 141, 157, 159, 186, 223; Elliott, “Hoshangâbâd Settlement Report,” 255; Hislop, “Papers,” 26.
20 “Folk-lore,” iv. 358.
21 Gordon Cumming, “From the Hebrides to the Himâlayas,” ii. 164; Brand, “Observations,” 126; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 61; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 98, 573.
22 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 234; Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 493, 524; Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 160; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” i. 99, 139, 170.
23 Knowles, “Kashmîr Folk-tales,” 3; fire is used in the same way; Temple, “Wideawake Stories,” 32, 271; “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 42; “Folk-lore Journal,” ii. 104.
24 Campbell, “Notes,” 70.
25 i. 50.
26 Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 415.
27 x. 85, 5.
28 “Bombay Gazetteer,” xiii. 93.
29 “Merchant of Venice,” v. 1; “Hamlet,” iv. 7.
30 “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, February;” see other references collected by Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 318.
31 Mrs. Mîr Hasan ’Ali, “Manners and Customs of the Muhammadans of India,” i. 275.
32 “Folk-lore,” ii. 222; iv. 355.
33 “Institutes,” vi. 9; Wilson, “Vishnu Purâna,” 145, 275 note.
34 Ewald, “Antiquities of Israel,” 349 sq.; Goldziher, “Mythology among the Hebrews,” 63.
35 “Odes,” iii. 23, 1, 2, and compare Job xxxi. 26, 27; Psalm lxxxi. 3.
36 Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 205 sq.
37 Campbell, “Notes,” 187.
38 Sherring, “Sacred City,” 221; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 42.
39 Hunter, “Orissa,” ii. 140.
40 Sarat Chandra Mitra, “Vestiges of Moon-worship in Bihâr and Bengal,” in the “Journal Anthropological Society of Bombay,” 1893.
41 “Folk-lore,” ii. 221; Monier Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 343.
42 Hardy, “Eastern Monachism,” 149.
43 “Folk-lore,” ii. 228.
44 Oppert, “Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsa,” 97, 98, 40.
45 Ovid, “Fasti,” iv. 728; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 113; “Folk-lore,” ii. 128; Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 326; “Indian Antiquary,” ii. 90; iii. 68; vii. 126 sqq.; Wilson, “Essays,” s.v. “Holî;” Leviticus xviii. 21; 2 Kings xxiii. 10; Herklot, “Qânûn-i-Islâm,” s.v. “Muharram.”
46 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 28.
47 “Lear,” i. 2.
48 “Brihat Sanhita.” Manning, “Ancient India,” i. 371.
49 “Demonology,” i. 45.
50 Mrs. Mîr Hasan ’Ali, “Observations,” i. 297 sq.
51 “Travels,” 301.
52 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 913 sq.
53 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 38.
54 Brand, “Observations,” 665; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 37, 85.
55 The Celtic form of the myth is given by Rhys, “Lectures,” 140 sq.; the Indian legend in Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” ii. 23.
56 “Golden Bough,” i. 331 sq.; and see Lang, “Custom and Myth,” ii. 262.
57 Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnology,” 114.
58 Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 291, with note ii. 543.
59 For instances, see Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 179.
60 “Bombay Gazetteer,” xi. 55.
61 Campbell, “Notes,” 79.
62 “Folk-lore,” ii. 298.
63 “Bombay Gazetteer,” xxii. 790.
64 Fryer, “Travels,” 418; Campbell, “Notes,” 81.
65 “Custom and Myth,” i. 285; ii. 229, note.
66 Campbell, “Notes,” 78 sqq.
67 Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 206; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 37; Ewald, “Antiquities of Israel,” 34; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 259, 314; Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” ii. 643.
68 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 261.
69 Elliott, “Settlement Report,” 125.
70 “Settlement Report,” 168.
71 “Folk-lore,” i. 153.
72 Virgil, “Georgics,” i. 487; “Æneid,” vii. 141; Horace, “Odes,” i. 34, 5.
73 “Descriptive Ethnology,” 229.
74 “Peri Potamôn.”
75 i. 3888 sqq.
76 “Mathura,” 179 sq.
77 Duncker, “History,” iv. II, note; Romesh Chandra Datt, “History of Civilization,” i. 94.
78 Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 41.
79 Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 224; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” iii. 219.
80 “Karnâl Gazetteer,” 31.
81 Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. II; Madden, “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1847, 228, 400; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 154, 163.
82 Madden, loc. cit., 233.
83Loc. cit., i. 14.
84 Sleeman, “Rambles,” i. 17.
85 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 264.
86 “Folk-lore,” iii. 32.
87 “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 374.
88 “Odyssey,” v. 450; and for other instances see Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 213; Campbell, “Notes,” 325 sqq.
89 Growse, “Mathura,” 55; Tod, “Annals,” i. 675; Oldfield, “Sketches from Nepâl,” ii. 204.
90 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 788, 832.
91 “Berar Gazetteer,” 35.
92 “Folk-lore,” i. 152, 209; iii. 72.
93 Rhys, “Lectures,” 123.
94 Knowles, “Folk-tales,” 313. 95 “Folk-lore,” ii. 284, 509; Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 194; Campbell, “Popular Tales,” ii. 205; Conway, “Demonology,” i. 110 sq.; Sir W. Scott, “Letters on Demonology,” 85; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 219; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 366; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 30; Gordon Cumming, “From the Hebrides to the Himâlayas,” i. 139; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 109 sq.; ii. 208; Gregor, “Folk-lore,” 66 sq.; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 216; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 58.
96 Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 109.
97 “Descriptive Ethnology,” 188.
98 “Primitive Culture,” i. 108 sq.; “Demonology,” i. 205.
99 “Folk Medicine,” 28 sq.
100 “Legends,” 82 sq.
101 Brand, “Observations,” 480.
102 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 242.
103 Herklots, “Qânûn-i-Islâm,” 21, 66 sq, 292; Hughes, “Dictionary of Islâm, s.v.
104 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 185.
105 Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 114; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 1; iii. 7; iv. 68.
106 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 102.
107 “Sirsa Settlement Report,” 178.
108 “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 258; Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 118.
109 Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 124.
110 Ball, “Jungle Life in India,” 531; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 166; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 2; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 236 sqq.
111 Campbell, “Notes,” 404.
112 Forbes, “Settlement Report,” 41.
113 Knowles, “Folk-tales of Kashmîr,” 504, with note; “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 499.
114 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 80, 134.
115 “Eastern India,” ii. 43.
116 Rhys, “Lectures,” 184.
117 Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 292.
118 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 793, 798.
119 Ibid., iii. 38.
120 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” iii. 26.
121 Tod, “Annals,” i. 814 sq.; Conway, “Demonology,” i. 113; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 169.
122 From the “Mânasa Khanda”; Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 308.
123 “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 131.
124 “Science of Fairy Tales,” chapter vi.; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 148.
125 Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 194.
126 “Bareilly Settlement Report,” 20; Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 26; “Bhandâra Settlement Report,” 47; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 39.
127 Oppert, “Ancient Inhabitants,” 467; Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 466.
128 Führer, loc cit., 290.
129 “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” iii. 27.
130 “Archæological Reports,” iv. 192.
131 Ibid., viii. 39.
132 Ibid., xxi. 175.
133 Ibid., xiv. 76.
134 Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 289.
135 “Popular Tales,” i. 176.
136 Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales of Bengal,” 281; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 158, 176; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 42; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 135; “Bombay Gazetteer,” v. 440; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 220.
137 i. 17.
138 “Mânasa Khanda”; Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 271.
139 See the remarks by Lassen, quoted by Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” ii. 337.
140 Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 200 sq., 210, 336.
141 “Remaines,” 18; Sir W. Scott, “Lectures on Demonology,” 135.
142 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 188, 210, 223, 230, 135, 186; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 306.
143 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 832.
144 “Settlement Report,” 121, 254.
145 Atkinson, loc. cit., ii. 792; Hislop, “Papers,” 14; Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 139.
146 Atkinson, loc. cit., iii. 48.
147 “Bombay Gazetteer,” v. 252.
148 Human sacrifice to the Durgâ of the Vindhyas occurs often in Indian folk-lore. See Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 64.
149 Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 24; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 178.
150 Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. 51 sq.; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 333.
151 Griffin, “Râjas of the Panjâb.”
152 Growse, “Mathura,” 278, where all the local legends are given in full.
153 “Anatomy of Melancholy,” 123.
154 “Primitive Culture,” ii. 261.
155 Growse, “Râmâyana,” 318.
156 “History of India,” chapter iii. 21, 330.
157 Sherring, “Sacred City,” 129.
158 Hislop, “Papers,” 18.
159 “Folk-lore,” iii. 541.
160 Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 292, 301; Oldfield, “Sketches from Nepâl,” ii. 6.
161 “Notes and Queries,” v. Ser. iii. 424; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 70; Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 16.
162 Conway, “Demonology,” i. 267.
163 Ibid., 224.
164 “Science of Fairy Tales,” 71 sqq.
165 Campbell, “Notes,” 101 sq.
166 “Bombay Gazetteer,” xviii. 416; xxi. 180; “Journal Ethnological Society,” N. S. i. 98. In the “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 154, the queen Kavalayavalî worships the gods stark naked.
167 Wright, “History,” 10.
168 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 148, 301.
169 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 31, 35.
170 “Golden Bough,” i. 17; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 41, 115; Hartland, “Science of Fairy Tales,” 84.
171 “Settlement Report,” 207.
172 I cannot procure this book. The quotation is from “Calcutta Review,” xv. 486.
173 “Settlement Report,” 135.
174 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” vii. 162.
175 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 210.
176 Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 476, quoting Mr. Fawcett.
177 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 134.
178 “Bombay Gazetteer,” iii. 221.
179 “Indian Antiquary,” v. 5.
180 “Bombay Gazetteer,” iv. 114.
181 Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 408, quoting Alberuni, chapter viii.
182 “Ethnology in Folk-lore,” 94.
183 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 102.
184 Ibid., ii. 41; Lyall, “Asiatic Studies,” 136.
185 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 369.
186 “Golden Bough,” i. 14.
187 Brand, “Observations,” 753.
188 Beal, “Fah Hian,” 78.
189 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iv. 218.
190 Turner, “Samoa,” 45.
191 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 101; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 180; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 24.
192 Aubrey, “Remaines,” 180; Henderson, “Folk-lore,” 24; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 65, 75, 109, 126.
193 “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 217.
194 Brand, “Observations,” 431.
195 “Archæological Reports,” v. 136.
196 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 13.
197 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 135.
198 “Folk-lore,” i. 162.
199 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 106.
200 “Folk-lore,” i. 149.
201 Ibid., iv. 173.
202 Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 128; “Folk-lore,” i. 149, 153; iv. 351.
203 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 79.
204 Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” ii. 104 sqq.; iii. 301.
205 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 39; Forbes, “Oriental Memoirs,” i. 205.
206 Leland, loc. cit., 272.
207 “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 32.
