North Indian Popular Religion: 16-Totemism and fetishism

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This article is an extract from THE POPULAR RELIGION AND FOLK-LORE OF NORTHERN INDIA BY W. CROOKE, B.A. BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. 2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W. 1896 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this colonial article.

North Indian Popular Religion: 16-Totemism and fetishism

TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.

Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,

Cum faber incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,

Maluit esse deum.

Horace, Sat. I. viii. 1–3.

“A totem is a class of material objects, which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exists between them and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation.”1 As distinguished from a fetish, a totem is never an isolated individual, but always a class of objects, generally a class of animals or plants, rarely a class of inanimate objects, very rarely a class of artificial objects.

Origin of Totemism

As regards the origin of totemism great diversity of opinion exists. Mr. Herbert Spencer considers that “it arose from a misinterpretation of nicknames; savages first took their names from natural objects, and then confusing these objects with their ancestors of the same name, paid the same respect to the material totem as they were in the habit of doing to their own ancestors.”2 The objection to this is, as Mr. Frazer shows, that it attributes to verbal misunderstandings far more influence than, in spite of the comparative mythologists, they ever seem to have exercised.

Sir J. Lubbock derives the idea from the practice of naming persons and families after animals, but “in dropping [147]the intermediate links of ancestor-worship and verbal misunderstanding, he has stripped the theory of all that lent it even an air of plausibility.”3

Recent inquiries in the course of the Ethnographical Survey of Bengal and the North-Western Provinces enable us perhaps to approach to a solution of the problem.

To begin with, at a certain stage of culture the idea of the connection between men and animals is exceedingly vivid, and reacts powerfully on current beliefs. The animal or plant is supposed to have a soul or spirit, like that of a human being, and this soul or spirit is capable of transfer to the man or animal and vice versâ.

This feeling comes out strongly in popular folk-lore, much of which is made up of instances of metamorphosis such as these. The witch or sorcerer is always changing into a tiger, a monkey, or a fish; the princess is always appearing out of the aubergine or pomegranate.

We have, again, the familiar theory to which reference has already been made, that the demon or magician has an external soul, which he keeps occasionally in the Life Index, which is often a bird, a tree, and an animal. If this life index can be seized and destroyed, the life of the monster is lost with it.

These principles, which are thoroughly congenial to the beliefs of all primitive races, naturally suggest a much closer union between man and other forms of animal or vegetable life than people of a higher stage of development either accept or admit. With people, then, at this stage of culture, the theory that the ancestor of the clan may have been a bear or a tortoise would present no features of improbability.

This theory accounts, as Mr. Frazer shows, for many of the obscure rites of initiation which prevail among most savage tribes and in a modified form among the Brâhmanized Hindus. The basis of such rites is probably to extract the soul of the youth and temporarily transfer it to the totem, from which in turn fresh life is infused into him. [148]

Lastly, the result of the Indian evidence is that it is only in connection with the rules of exogamy that totemism at the present day displays any considerable degree of vitality. The real basis of exogamy in Northern India seems to be the totem sept, which, however, flourishes at the present day only among the Drâvidian tribes and those allied to them. But it would, it is almost certain, be incorrect to say that while totemism is at present most active among the Drâvidians, in connection with marriage, it was peculiar to them. It is more reasonable to infer that it continues to flourish among these races, because of their isolation from Brâhmanical influence.

As among the inferior races of the Gangetic valley, the primitive family customs connected with marriage, birth, and death have undergone a process of denudation from their connection with the more advanced Hindu races which surround them, so to a large degree in Northern India, the totemistic sept names have been gradually shed off, and replaced by an eponymous, local, or territorial nomenclature.

In short, under the pressure of higher culture, the kindred of the swan, turtle, or parrot have preferred to call themselves Kanaujiya or “men of Kanauj,” Sarwariya or “residents of the land beyond the Sarju river,” and Raghuvansa or Bhriguvansa, “descendants of the sages Raghu or Bhrigu.”

We find, then, among such races, as might have been expected, that at the present day the totemistic sept system exists only in obscure and not easily recognizable forms. Folk etymology has also exercised considerable influence, and a sept ashamed of its totemistic title readily adopts some title of the eponymous type, or a local cognomen sounding something like the name of the primitive totem.

It is perhaps too much to expect that a careful exploration of the sept titles or tribal customs of Northern India will lead to extensive discoveries of the primitive totemistic organization. The process of trituration which has affected the caste nomenclature for such a lengthened period, and the obscuration of primitive belief by association with more cultured tribes, have been so continuous as to leave only a [149]few fragments and isolated survivals; but it is by a course of such inquiry that the totemistic basis of the existing caste system can alone be reached.

I have considered this question in the light of the most recent evidence in another place,4 and it is needless to repeat the results which were there arrived at.

For the purpose of such an investigation it is convenient to have some sort of working classification of the tests of, and the forms in which, totemism usually appears. These have been laid down by the late Professor Robertson-Smith as follows:—

(a) The existence of stocks named after plants, animals, or similar totems.

(b) The prevalence of a conception that the members of the stock are of the blood of the eponym, or are sprung from a plant, etc., of the species chosen as the totem.

(c) The ascription of a sacred character to the totem.

Stocks Named from Animals, Plants, etc

First as to the stocks named from animals, plants, etc. There are two divisions of the Pûra Brâhmans of the Dakkhin, known as Bakriyâr and Chheriyâr, founded on the names of the male and female goat. In Upper India, the Kâchhis or market gardeners, and the Kachhwâha sept of Râjputs allege that they take their names from the Kachchhapa or tortoise, as the Kurmis refer their name to the Kûrma or turtle.

The Ahban Râjputs and the Ahiwâsis of Mathura connect their names with Ahi, the dragon. The Kalhans Râjputs derive their name from the Kâlahans or black goose. Among Brâhmans and other high castes, Bhâradvaja, “the lark, the bringer of food,” has given its name to many sections. Mr. Risley thinks that the fact of there being a Kasyapa division of Kumhârs or potters, who venerate the tortoise, points to the name being a corruption of Kachchhapa, the tortoise, in which case their name would have the same origin as that of the Kâchhis already mentioned. [150]

Many people, again, claim kindred with the sun and moon. Such are the Natchez of North America and the Incas of Peru.5 There are many children of the sun and moon in Arabia,6 and gypsies of the east of Europe have a legend that they are descended from the sun and moon; the sun having debauched his moon sister, was condemned to wander for ever, in consequence of which their descendants can never rest.7 So in India, the Sûrajbansi and Chandrabansi Râjputs are said to take their names from Sûraj, the sun, and Chandra, the moon, respectively.

According to Captain J. Montgomerie,8 round Kashmîr, and among the aboriginal tribes of the Himâlayan slopes, men are usually named after animals, as the Bakhtiyâris, one of the nomad tribes of Persia, name their children usually not after the Prophet, but after wild animals, such as the wolf, tiger, and the like, adding some descriptive epithet. In the same way a tribe of Lodi Pathâns in the Panjâb are known as Nâhar or “wolf.” This is said to be due to their rapacity, and may be as likely a nickname as a survival of totemism.9

Totem Names among the Drâvidians

The evidence of this point is, as has been already said, much more distinct among the Drâvidians than among the more Hinduized races. Details of such names among the Agariyas, Nats, Baiswârs, and Ghasiyas have been given in detail elsewhere.10 Thus, to take the Dhângars, a caste in Mirzapur, allied to the Orâons of Bengal, we find that they have eight exogamous septs, all or most of which are of totemistic origin. Thus, Ilha is said to mean a kind of fish, which members of this sept do not eat; Kujur is a kind of jungle herb which this sept does not use;

Tirik is probably [151]the Tirki or bull sept of the Orâons. In Chota Nâgpur, members of this sept do not touch any cattle after their eyes are open. It illustrates the uncertainty of these usages that in other places they say that the word Tirki means “young mice,” which they are prohibited from using.11 Again, the Mirzapur sept of the Dhângars, known as Lakara, is apparently identical with that called Lakrar among the Bengal Orâons, who must not eat tiger’s flesh as they are named after the tiger; in Mirzapur they derive their name from the Lakar Bagha, or hyæna, which they will not hunt or kill.

The Bara sept is apparently the same as the Barar of the Orâons, who will not eat the leaves of the Bar tree or Ficus Indica. In Mirzapur they will not cut this tree.

The Ekka sept in Mirzapur say that this name means “leopard,” an animal which they will not kill, but in Chota Nâgpur the same word is said to mean “tortoise” and to be a totemistic sept of the Orâons. So, the Mirzapur Dhângars have a Tiga sept, which they say takes its name from a jungle root which is prohibited to them; but the Orâons of Bhâgalpur have a Tig sept, which, according to them, means “monkey.”

The last of the Mirzapur septs is the Khâha, which, like the Khakkar sept of the Orâons, means “crow,” and neither will eat the bird. Similar instances might be almost indefinitely repeated from usages of the allied tribes in Mirzapur and the adjoining Bengal Districts.

The Panjâb Snake Tribe

In the Panjâb there is a special snake tribe. They observe every Monday and Thursday in the snake’s honour, cooking rice and milk, setting a portion aside for the snake, and never eating or making butter on those days. If they find a dead snake, they put clothes upon it, and give it a regular funeral.

They will not kill a snake, and say that its bite is harmless to them. The snake, they say, changes its form every hundred years, and then becomes a man or a [152]bull.12 So, in Senegambia, “a python is expected to visit every child of the Python clan within eight days after birth; and the Psylli, a snake clan of ancient Africa, used to expose their infants to snakes in the belief that the snakes would not harm true-born children of the clan.”13 So, in Northern India the Bais Râjputs are children of the snake, and supposed to be safe from its bite, and Nâga Râja is the tribal godling of the Bâjgis.

There is a well-known legend of a queen of India, who is said to have sent to Alexander, among other costly presents, a girl, who, having been fed with serpents from her infancy, partook of their venomous nature. The well-known tale of Elsie Venner has been already referred to in the same connection.

Totemism in Proper Names

The subject of Indian proper names has not yet received the attention it deserves. The only attempt to investigate the subject, so far, is that of Major Temple.14 In his copious lists there is ample evidence that names are freely adopted from those of animals, plants, etc. Thus we have Bagha, “Tiger”; Bheriya, “Wolf”; Billa, “Cat”; Chûha, “Rat,” and so on from animals; Bagla, “Heron”; Tota, “Parrot,” and so on from birds; Ajgar, “Python”; Mendak, “Frog”; Kachhua, “Tortoise;”; Bhaunra, “Bumble Bee”; Ghun, “Weevil”; Dîmak, “White Ant,” etc. From plants come Bûta, “Tree”; Harabansa, “Green Bamboo” (or more probably Hari-vansa, “the genealogy of Hari” or Vishnu); Nîma, “Nîm tree”; Pîpal, “Pîpal tree”; Gulâba, “Rose”; Imliya, “Tamarind”; Sewa, “Apple”; Ilâcha, “Cardamum”; Mirchi, “Pepper”; Bhutta, “Maize.”

The evidence of nomenclature must, of course, be received with caution. The essence of totemism is a confessed belief in animal descent, a name declaring that descent and some sacredness attached to the animal or other fancied ancestor.

Many of these names may be nicknames, or titles of opprobrium [153]selected, as we have already shown, to baffle the Evil Eye or the influence of demons. Besides, as has been pointed out, it does not necessarily follow because an Englishman lives in “Acacia Villa” or “Laburnum Cottage,” and calls his daughter “Rose” or “Violet,” that he is in the totemistic stage. At the same time, it is quite possible that further inquiry will discover undoubted instances of totemism in the nomenclature of Northern India, as is the case with other races in a similar stage of culture.

Descent from the Totem

We next come to Professor Robertson-Smith’s second test, the belief in descent from the totem. This branch of the subject has been very fully illustrated by Mr. Frazer.15 As in old times in Georgiana, according to Marco Polo, all the king’s sons were born with an eagle on the right shoulder marking their royal origin,16 so Chandragupta, king of Ujjain, was the son of a scorpion. “His mother accidentally imbibed the scorpion’s emission, by means of which she conceived.”17

The Jaitwas of Râjputâna trace their descent from the monkey god Hanumân, and confirm it by alleging that the spine of their princes is elongated like a tail. In the Râmâyana, one of the wives of King Sâgara gives birth to a son who continues the race; the other wife produces an Ikshvâku, a gourd or cane containing sixty thousand sons.

The famous Chandragupta was miraculously preserved by the founder of his race, the bull Chando.18 The wolf is in the same way traditionally connected with the settlement of the Janwâr Râjputs in Oudh, and they believe that the animal never preys on their children. Every native believes that children are reared in the dens of wolves, and there is a certain amount of respectable evidence in support of the belief.19 [154]

Similar examples are numerous among the Drâvidian tribes. The Cheros of the Vindhyan plateau claim descent from the Nâga or dragon. The Râja and chief members of the Chota Nâgpur family wear turbans so arranged as to make the head-dress resemble a serpent coiled round the skull, with its head projecting over the wearer’s brow.

The seal of the Mahârâja and the arms of his family show as a crest a cobra with a human face under its expanded hood, surrounded with all the insignia of royalty. The Santâl legend ascribes the origin of the tribe to the wild goose, and similar stories are told by the family of the Râja of Sinhbhûm, the Hos, the Malers, and the Kûrs.20

Special Respect Paid to the Totem

Next come instances of special respect paid to the totem. Some idea of the kind may be partly the origin of the worship of the cow and the serpent. Dr. Ball describes how some Khândhs refused to carry the skin of a leopard because it was their totem.21 The Kadanballis of Kanara will not eat the Sâmbhar stag, the Bargaballis the Barga deer, and the Kuntiballis the woodcock.

The Vaydas of Cutch worship the monkey god whom they consider to be their ancestor, and to please him in their marriage ceremony, the bridegroom goes to the bride’s house dressed up as a monkey and there leaps about in monkey fashion.22 It is possibly from regard to the totem that the Parihâr Râjputs of Râjputâna will not eat the wild boar, but they have now invented a legend that one of their princes went into a river while pursuing a boar and was cured of a loathsome disease.23

There is a Celtic legend in which a child is turned into a pig, and Gessa is laid on Diarmid not to kill a pig, as it has the same span of life as himself.24

The Bengal Bâwariyas take the heron as their emblem, and must not eat it.25 The Orissa Kumhârs abstain from [155]eating, and even worship the Sâl fish, because the rings on its scales resemble the wheel which is the symbol of their craft.26

The peacock is a totem of the Jâts and of the Khândhs, as the Yizidis worship the Tâous, a half mythical peacock, which has been connected with the Phœnix which Herodotus saw in Egypt.27 The Parhaiyas have a tradition that their tribe used to hold sheep and deer sacred, and used the dung of these animals instead of cowdung to plaster their floors. So the Kariyas do not eat the flesh of sheep, and may not even use a woollen rug. The same prohibition of meats appears to be a survival of totemism in Arabia.28

The Devak

One of the best illustrations of this form of totemism is that of the Devak or family guardian gods of Berâr and Bombay. Before concluding an alliance, the Kunbi and other Berâr tribes look to the Devak, which literally means the deity worshipped at marriage ceremonies; the fact being that certain families hold in honour particular trees and plants, and at the marriage ceremony branches of these trees are set up in the house.

It is said that a betrothal, in every other respect irreproachable, will be broken off if the two houses are discovered to pay honour to the same tree, in other words if they worship the same family totem and hence must belong to one and the same endogamous group.29

The same custom prevails in Bombay. “The usual Devaks are some animals, like the elephant, stag, deer, or cock, or some tree, as the Jambul, Ber, Mango, or Banyan. The Devak is the ancestor or the head of the house, and so families which have the same guardian do not intermarry.

If the Devak be an animal, its flesh is not eaten; but if it be a fruit tree, the use of the fruit generally is not forbidden, though some families abstain from eating the fruit of the tree which forms their Devak or badge.”30 Mr. Campbell [156]gives numerous examples of these family totems, such as wheat bread, a shell, an earthen pot, an axe, a Banyan tree, an elephant.

Oil-makers have as their totem an iron bar, or an oil-mill; scent-makers use five piles, each of five earthen pots, with a lighted lamp in the middle. The Bangars’ Devak is a conch-shell, that of the Pardesi Râjputs an earthen pot filled with wheat, and so on. Many of these are probably tribal or occupational fetishes, of which instances will be given in another place.

The Vâhanas and Avatâras

Some have professed to find indications of totemism in the Vâhanas and Avatâras, the “Vehicles” and the “Incarnations” of the mythology; but this is far from certain. It has been suggested that these may represent tribal deities imported into Hinduism. Brahma rides on the Hansa or goose; Vishnu on Garuda, half eagle and half man, which is the crest of the Chandravansi Râjputs; Siva on his bull Nandi;

Yama on a buffalo; Kârttikeya on a peacock; Kâmadeva on the marine monster Makara, or on a parrot; Agni on a ram; Varuna on a fish. Ganesa is accompanied by his rat, whence his name Akhuratha, “rat-borne.” This an ingenious comparative mythologist makes out to represent “the pagan Sun god crushing under his feet the mouse of night.”31 Vâyu rides on an antelope, Sani or Saturn on a vulture, and Durgâ on a tiger.

The same is the case with the Avatâras or incarnations of the deities. Vishnu appears in the form of Vârâha, the boar; Kurma, the tortoise; Matsya, the fish; Nara Sinha, the man-lion; Kalki, the white horse. Rudra and Indra are also represented in the form of the boar.

The Boar as a Totem

How the boar came to be associated with Vishnu has been much disputed. One and not a very plausible explanation [157]which has been suggested is that it is because the boar is a destroyer of snakes.32 We know that in Râjputâna there was a regular spring festival at which the boar was killed because he was regarded as the special enemy of Gaurî, the Râjput tribal goddess.33

The comparative mythologists account for the spring boar festival by connecting it with the ceremonial eating of the boar’s head at Christmas in Europe, as a symbol of the gloomy monster of winter, killed at the winter solstice, after which the days get longer and brighter.34 Mr. Frazer explains it by the killing of the Corn Spirit in the form of the boar.35

But it is, perhaps, simpler to believe with Sir A. Lyall36 that “when the Brâhmans convert a tribe of pig-worshipping aborigines, they tell their proselytes that the pig was an Avatâr of Vishnu.

The Mînas in one part of Râjputâna used to worship the pig. When they took a turn towards Islâm they changed their pig into a saint called Father Adam, and worshipped him as such.” Mr. Frazer has pointed out that the “customs of the Egyptians touching the pig are to be explained as based upon an opinion of the extreme sanctity rather than of the extreme uncleanness of the animal; or rather to put it more correctly, they imply that the animal was looked on not simply as a filthy and a disgusting creature, but as a being endowed with high supernatural powers, and that as such it was regarded with that primitive sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the feelings of reverence are almost equally blended.”

There are indications of the same belief in India. Thus, in Baghera “the boar is a sacred animal, and the natives there say that if any man were to kill a wild boar in the neighbourhood, he would be sure to die immediately afterwards, while no such fatal result would follow if the same man killed a boar anywhere else.”37 In the same way the Prabhus of Bombay eat wild pork once a year as a religious [158]duty. The Vaddars of the Dakkhin say that they are not troubled with ghosts, because the pork they eat and hang in their houses scares ghosts.

We know that among the Drâvidian races and many of the menial tribes of Hindustân the pig is the favourite offering to the local godlings and to the deities of disease. Swine’s teeth are often worn by Hindu ascetics, and among the Kolarian races the women are forbidden to eat the flesh. In Northern India the chief place where the worship of Vishnu in his Vârâha or boar incarnation is localized is at Soron on the banks of the Bûrhî Gangâ, or old Ganges, in the Etah District.

The name of the place has been derived from Sukarakshetra, “the place of the good deed,” because here Vishnu slew the demon Hiranyakesu. It is certainly Sukarakshetra, “the plain of the hog.”38

Garuda, another of these vehicles, is the wonder-working bird common to many mythologies—the Rukh of the Arabian Nights, the Eorosh of the Zend, the Simurgh of the Persians, the Anka of the Arabs, the Kargas of the Turks, the Kirni of the Japanese, the Dragon of China, the Norka of Russia, the Phœnix of classical fable, the Griffin of chivalry and of Temple Bar.

From totemism we get a clue to many curious usages, especially in the matter of food. From this idea probably arose the unclean beasts of the Hebrew ritual. Many Hindu tribes will not eat the onion or the turnip. Brâhmans and Bachgoti Râjputs object to potatoes. The Râjputs place a special value on the wood of the Nîm tree; one clan alone, the Raikwârs, are forbidden to use it as a tooth-stick. Some Kolarian tribes, as we have already seen, refuse to use the flesh or wool of the sheep. The Murmu, or Santâls of the blue bull sept, will not eat the flesh of that animal.

The system of the Orâons is more elaborate still, for no sub-tribe can eat the plant or animal after which it is named. So, the Bansetti Binjhiyas, who take their name from the bamboo, do not touch the tree at a wedding; the Harbans Chamârs, who are said to be in [159]some way connected with a bone (hadda), cannot wear bones in any shape; the Rikhiâsan Chiks do not eat beef or pork; the Sanuâni Dhenuârs cannot wear gold; the Dhanuâr Khariyas cannot eat rice gruel. Numerous instances of this kind are given by Mr. Risley.39 The transition from such observances and restrictions to the elaborate food regulations of the modern castes is not difficult.

Fetishism Defined

Fetishism is “the straightforward, objective admiration of visible substances fancied to possess some mysterious influence or faculty.... The original downright adoration of queer-looking objects is modified by passing into the higher order of imaginative superstition. First, the stone is the abode of some spirit, its curious shape or position betraying possession. Next, the strange form or aspect argues some design or handiwork of supernatural beings, or is the vestige of their presence upon earth, and one step further leads us to the regions of mythology and heroic legend.”40

The unusual appearance of the object is thus supposed to imply an indwelling ghost, without which deviation from the ordinary type would be inexplicable. Hence fetishism depends on animism and the ghost theory, to which in order of time it must have succeeded.

Fetishism Illustrated in Afghânistân

The process by which the worship of such a fetish grows is well illustrated by a case from Afghânistân. “It is sufficient for an Afghân devotee to see a small heap of stones, a few rags, or some ruined tomb, something, in short, upon which a tale can be invented, to imagine at once that some saint is buried there.

The idea conceived, he throws some more stones upon the heap and sticks up a pole or flag; those who come after follow the leader; more stones and [160]more rags are added; at last its dimensions are so considerable that it becomes the vogue; a Mullah is always at hand with a legend which he makes or had revealed to him in a dream; all the village believe it: a few pilgrims come; crowds follow; miracles are wrought, and the game goes on, much to the satisfaction of the holy speculator, who drives a good trade by it, till some other Mullah more cunning than himself starts a saint of more recent date and greater miraculous powers, when the traffic changes hands.”41

The same process is daily going on before our eyes in Northern India, and it would be difficult to suggest anything curious or abnormal which the Hindu villager will not adopt as fetish.

The Lorik Legend

The legend of Lorik is very popular among the Ahîr tribe, and has been localized in the Mirzapur District in a curious way which admirably illustrates the principles which we have been discussing.

The story is related at wearisome length, but the main features of it, according to the Shâhâbâd version, are as follows: Siudhar, an Ahîr, marries Chandanî, and is cursed by Pârvatî with the loss of all passion. Chandanî forms an attachment for her neighbour Lorik and elopes with him.

The husband pursues, fails to induce her to return, fights Lorik and is beaten. The pair go and meet Mahapatiya, a Dusâdh, the chief of the gamblers. He and Lorik play until the latter loses everything, including the girl. She urges that her jewels did not form part of the stake, and induces them to gamble again.

She stands opposite Mahapatiya and distracts his attention by giving him a glance of her pretty ankles. Finally Lorik wins everything back. The girl then tells Lorik how she has been insulted, and Lorik with his mighty sword cuts off the gambler’s head, when it and the body are turned into stone.

Lorik had been betrothed to a girl named Satmanâin, who was not of age and had not joined her husband. Lorik had an adopted brother named Semru. Lorik and Chandanî, [161]after killing the gambler, went on to Hardoi, near Mongir, where Lorik defeated a Râja and conquered his country. Lorik was finally seized and put into a dungeon, whence he was released by the aid of the goddess Durgâ.

He again conquered the Râja, recovered Chandanî, had a son born to him, and gained considerable wealth. So they determined to return to their native land.

Meanwhile Semru, Lorik’s brother by adoption, had been killed by the Kols and all his cattle and property were plundered. Lorik’s real wife, Satmanâin, had grown into a handsome woman, but still remained in her father’s house. Lorik was anxious to test her fidelity; so when she came to sell milk in his camp, not knowing her husband, he stretched a loin cloth across the entrance.

All the other women stepped over it, but the delicacy of Satmanâin was so excessive that she would not put her foot across it. Lorik was pleased, and filling her basket with jewels, covered them with rice. When she returned, her sister saw the jewellery and charged her with obtaining them as the price of her dishonour. She indignantly denied the accusation, and her nephew, Semru’s son, prepared to fight Lorik to avenge the dishonour of his aunt. Next day the matter was cleared up to the satisfaction of all parties.

Lorik then reigned with justice, and incurred the displeasure of Indra, who sought to destroy him. So the goddess Durgâ took the form of his mistress Chandanî and tempted him. He succumbed to her wiles, and she struck him so that his face turned completely round. Overcome by grief and shame, he went to Benares, and there he and his friends were turned into stone and sleep the sleep of magic at Manikarnika Ghât.

The Mirzapur Version

The Mirzapur version is interesting from its association with fetishism. As you descend the Mârkundi Pass into the valley of the Son, you observe a large isolated boulder split into two parts, with a narrow fissure between them. Further on in the bed of the Son is a curious water-worn rock, which, [162]to the eye of faith, suggests a rude resemblance to a headless elephant.

On this foundation has been localized the legend of Lorik, which takes us back to the time when the Aryan and the aboriginal Dasyu contended for mastery in the wild borderland. There was once, so the tale runs, a barbarian king who reigned at the fort of Agori, the frontier fortress on the Son. Among his dependents was a cowherd maiden, named Manjanî, who was loved by her clansman Lorik. He, with his brother Sânwar, came to claim her as his bride.

The Râja insisted on enforcing the Jus primae noctis. The heroic brethren, in order to escape this infamy, carried off the maiden. The Râja pursued on his famous wild elephant, which Lorik decapitated with a single blow.

When they reached in their flight the Mârkundi Pass, the wise Manjanî advised Lorik to use her father’s sword, which, with admirable forethought, she had brought with her. He preferred his own weapon, but she warned him to test both.

His own sword broke to pieces against the huge boulder of the Pass, but Manjanî’s weapon clave it in twain. So Lorik and his brother, with the aid of the magic brand, defeated the infidel hosts with enormous slaughter, and carried off the maiden in triumph.

If you doubt the story, there are the cloven boulder and the petrified elephant to witness to its truth, and both are worshipped to this day in the name of Lorik and his bride with offerings of milk and grain.

This tale embodies a number of incidents which constantly appear in the folk-tales. We have the gambling match in the Mahâbhârata and in the tale of Nala and Damayantî, as well as in the Celtic legend of the young king of Easaidh Ruadh.42 The magic sword and the various fidelity tests appear both in the folk-tales of the East and West. [163]

Of living creatures turned into stone we have many instances in connection with the Pândava legend, as in Cornwall, the granite rocks known as the “Merry Maidens” and the “Pipers” are a party who broke the Sabbath, were struck by lightning, and turned into stone.43

Jirâyâ Bhavânî

Of a similar type is Jirâyâ Bhavânî, who is worshipped at Jungail, south of the Son. In her place of worship, a cave on the hillside, the only representative of the goddess is an ancient rust-eaten coat of mail. This gives her name, which is a corruption of the Persian Zirah, meaning a coat of armour. Close by is a little stream, known as the Suaraiya, the meaning of which is, of course, assumed to be “Hog river,” from the Hindi Sûar, a pig. Here we have all the elements of a myth.

In one of the early fights between Hindu and Musalmân, a wounded hero of Islâm came staggering to the bank of the stream, and was about to drink, when he heard that its name was connected with what is an abomination to the true believer. So he preferred to die of thirst, and no one sees any incongruity in the fact that the armour of a martyr of the faith has become a form of the Hindu goddess. The shrine is now on its promotion, and Jirâyâ Bhavânî will be provided with a Sanskrit etymology and develop before long into a genuine manifestation of Kâlî.

Village Fetish Stones

It is hardly necessary to say that, as Sir J. Lubbock has shown, the worship of fetish stones prevails in all parts of the world.44 There is hardly a village in Northern India without a fetish of this kind, which is very often not appropriated to any special deity, but represents the Grâmadevatâ [164]or Gânw-devî, or Deohâr, the collective local divine cabinet which has the affairs of the community under its charge.

Why spirits should live in stones has been debated. Mr. Campbell perhaps presses the matter too far when he suggests that stones were by early man found to contain fire, and that heated stones being found useful in disease, cooking, and the like may have strengthened the idea. “The earliest theory was perhaps that as the life of the millet was in the millet seed and the life of the Mango tree was in the

Mango stone, a human spirit could live in a rock or a pebble. The belief that the soul, or part of the soul of a man, lives in his bones, seems closely connected with the belief in the stone as a spirit house. Probably it was an early belief that the bones should be kept, so that if the spirit comes back and worries the survivors he may have a place to go to.”45

It is quite possible that the worship of stocks and stones may not in all places be based on exactly the same train of ideas. To the ruder races, the more curious or eccentric the form of the stone is, the more likely it is to be the work and possibly the abode of a spirit, and in a stoneless land, like the Gangetic plain, any stone is a wonder, and likely to be revered. The conception of the worshipper will always vary in regard to it.

To the savage it will be the actual home or the occasional resting-place of the spirit; to the idolater of more advanced ideas it will be little more than a symbol, which reminds him of the deity without shape or form whom he is bound to worship.

Other fetish stones, again, by their form prove that they are the work of another or a higher race. Thus, on the village fetish mounds we often find the carved relics of some Buddhistic shrine, or the prehistoric stone implements, which were the work of a forgotten people.

Lastly, many stones lend themselves directly to the needs of the phallic cultus.

One form of stone is regarded with special reverence, those that have holes or perforations. Among these may [165]be mentioned the Sâlagrâma, a sort of ammonite found in the Gandak river, which has perforations, said to be the work of the Vajrakîta insect and hence sacred to Vishnu. The story goes that the divine Nârâyana once wandered through the world in the form of the Vajrakîta or golden bee.

The gods, attracted by his beauty, also took the form of bees, and whirled about him in such numbers that Vishnu, afraid of the consequences, assumed the form of a rock and stopped the moving of Garuda and the gods.

On this Garuda, followed by all the gods, made each a separate dwelling in the rock for the conversion of the infidels. So the Cornish Milpreve, or adder stone which is a preservative against vipers, is a ball of coralline limestone, the sections in the coral being thought to be entangled young snakes.46 In Italy, pieces of stalagmite full of cavities are valued as amulets.

The respect for these perforated stones rests, again, on the well-known principle that looking through a stone which has a hole bored through it improves the sight.

All over the world it is a recognized theory that creeping through the orifice in a perforated stone or under an arching stone or tree is a valuable remedy in cases of disease. Mr. Lane describes how women in Cairo walk under the stone on which the decapitated bodies of criminals are washed, in the hope of curing ophthalmia or procuring offspring. The woman must do this in silence, and with the left foot foremost.47 In Cornwall, Mr. Hunt writes: “In various parts of the country there are, amongst the granitic masses, rocks which have fallen across each other, leaving small openings, or there are holes, low and narrow, extending under a pile of rocks.

In nearly every case of this kind, we find it is popularly stated that any one suffering from rheumatism or lumbago would be cured if he crawled through the opening. In some cases nine times are insisted on to make the charm complete.”48 So, walking under a bramble which has formed a second root in the earth is a cure for rheumatism, and [166]strumous children were passed nine times through a cleft ash tree, against the sun. The tree was then bound up, and if the bark grew the child was cured, if the tree died the death of the child was sure to follow.49

In the same way at many shrines it is part of the worship to creep through a narrow orifice from one side to the other. At Kankhal, worshippers at the temple of Daksha creep through a sort of tunnel from one side to the other. The same is the rule at the temple at Kabraiya in the Hamîrpur District, and at many other places of the same kind.50

The same principle probably accounts for the respect paid to the grindstone. Part of the earliest form of the marriage ritual consisted in the bride standing on the family grindstone. At the present day she puts her foot upon it and knocks down little piles of heaped grain. It is waved over the heads of the pair to scare evil spirits.

In Bombay it is said that sitting on a grindstone shortens life, and the Kunbis of Kolâba place a grindstone in the lying-in room, and on it set a rice flour image of a woman, which is worshipped as the goddess, and the baby is laid before it. Such a stone readily passes into a fetish, as at Ahmadnagar, where there is a stone with two holes, which any two fingers of any person’s hand can fill, and the mosque where it stands is, in consequence, much respected.51

Much, however, of the worship of stones appears to be the result of the respect paid to the tombstone or cairn, which, as we have already said, keeps down the ghost of the dead man, and is often a place in which his spirit chooses to reside.

These rude stones are very often smeared with ruddle or red ochre. We have here a survival of the blood sacrifice of a human being or animal which was once universal.52 Such sacrifices rest on the principle that it is necessary to supply attendants to the dead or to the tribal gods in the other [167]world; and the commutation of human sacrifices, first into those of animals, and then into a mere scarlet stain on the fetish stone, is a constantly recurring fact in the history of custom.53 It may be worth while to discuss this transition from the Indian evidence.

Human Sacrifice among the Indo-Aryans

That human sacrifice prevailed among the early Aryans in India is generally admitted. The whole question has been treated in detail by that eminent Hindu scholar, Rajendra Lâla Mitra. He arrives at the conclusion that, looking to the history of the ancient civilization and the ritual of the Hindus, there is nothing to justify the belief that the Hindus were incapable of sacrificing human victims to their gods; that the Sunasepha hymns of the Rig

Veda Sanhita most probably refer to a human sacrifice; that the Aitareya Brâhmana refers to an actual and not to a typical human sacrifice; that the Parushamedha originally required the actual sacrifice of men; that the Taitareya Brâhmana enjoys the killing of a man at the horse sacrifice; that the Satapatha Brâhmana sanctions human sacrifice in some cases, but makes the Parushamedha emblematic; that the Purânas recognize human sacrifices to Chandikâ, but prohibit the Parushamedha rite; that the Tantras enjoin human sacrifices to Chandikâ, and require that when human victims are not available, an effigy of a human being should be sacrificed to her.54

Human Sacrifice in the Folk-tales

There is ample evidence from the folk-tales of the existence of human sacrifice in early times. We have in the tales of Somadeva constant reference to human sacrifices [168]made in honour of Chandikâ or Châmundâ. We find one Muravara, a Turushka or Indo-Scythian, who proposes to make a human sacrifice in memory of his dead father; we have expiatory sacrifices to Chandikâ to save the life of a king. In one of the Panjâb tales a ship will not leave port till a human victim is offered.

In one of the modern tales we have an account of a man and his family who sacrifice themselves before the god Jyoti Bara, “the great diviner,” who is worshipped by the Sânsya gypsies.55

The folk-tales also disclose ample evidence of cannibalism. The Magian cannibals of the Book of Sindibad used to eat human flesh raw, and the same tale is told by Herodotus of the Massagetae, the Padaei of India, whom Col. Dalton identifies with the Birhors of Chota Nâgpur, and of the Essedones near Lake Moeotis.56

It is needless to say that Indian folk-tales abound with references to the same practices. We have cannibal Râkshasas in abundance, and in one of Somadeva’s stories Devaswâmin, the Brâhman, looks out and finds his “wife’s mouth stained with blood, for she had devoured his servant and left nothing of him but the bones.” And in the tale of Asokadatta we have a woman who climbs on a stake and cuts slices of the flesh of an impaled criminal, which she eats.57 In the Mahâbhârata we find the legend of Kalmashapada, who, while hunting, meets Saktri, son of Vasishtha, and strikes him with his whip.

The incensed sage cursed him to become a cannibal. This curse was heard by Viswamitra, the rival of Vasishtha, and he so contrived that the body of the king became possessed by a man-eating Râkshasa. Kalmashapada devoured Saktri and the hundred sons of Vasishtha, who finally restored him to his original state. In a tale recently collected among the Drâvidian Mânjhis, a girl accidentally cuts her finger and some of the blood falls upon the greens, whereupon her [169]brothers, finding that it flavoured the mess, killed and devoured her.58

Human Sacrifice in Modern Times

Up to quite modern times the same was the case, and there is some evidence to show that the custom has not quite ceased.

Until the beginning of the present century, the custom of offering a first-born child to the Ganges was common. Akin to this is the Gangâ Jâtra, or murder of sick relatives on the banks of the sacred river, of which a case occurred quite recently at Calcutta. At Katwa, near Calcutta, a leper was burnt alive in 1812; he threw himself into a pit ten cubits deep which was filled with burning coals. He tried to escape, but his mother and sister thrust him in again and he was burnt.

They believed that by so doing he would gain a pure body in the next birth.59 Of this religious suicide in Central India, Sir J. Malcolm wrote: “Self-sacrifice of men is less common than it used to be, and the men who do it are generally of low tribes. One of their chief motives is that they will be born Râjas at their next incarnation. Women who have been long barren, vow their first child, if one be given to them, to Omkâr Mandhâta. The first knowledge imparted to the infant is this vow, and the impression is so implanted in his mind, that years before his death he seems like a man haunted by his destiny.

There is a tradition that anyone saved after the leap over the cliff near the shrine must be made Râja of the place; but to make this impossible, poison is mixed with the last victuals given to the devoted man, who is compelled to carry out his purpose.”60

The modern instances of human sacrifice among the Khândhs of Bengal and the Mers of Râjputâna are sufficiently notorious. It also prevailed among some of the Drâvidian tribes up to quite recent times. The Kharwârs, [170]since adopting Hinduism, performed human sacrifices to Kâlî in the form of Chandî. Some of our people who fell into their hands during the Mutiny were so dealt with.

The same was the case with the Bhuiyas, Khândhs, and Mundas. Some of the Gonds of Sarguja used to offer human sacrifice to Burha Deo, and still go through a form of doing so.61 There is a recent instance quoted among the Tiyars, a class of boatmen in Benares; one Tonurâm sacrificed four men in the hope of recovering the treasures of seven Râjas; another man was killed to propitiate a Râkshasa who guarded a treasure supposed to be concealed in a house where the deed was committed.62 About 1881 a village headman sacrificed a human being to Kâlî in the Sambalpur District, and a similar charge was made against the chief of Bastar not many years ago.

Of the Karhâda Brâhmans of Bombay, Sir J. Malcolm writes:63 “The tribe of Brâhmans called Karhâda had formerly a horrid custom of annually sacrificing to their deities a young Brâhman. The Saktî is supposed to delight in human blood, and is represented with fiery eyes and covered with red flowers.

This goddess holds in one hand a sword and in the other a battle-axe. The prayers of her votaries are directed to her during the first nine days of the Dasahra feast, and on the evening of the tenth a grand repast is prepared, to which the whole family is invited.

An intoxicating drug is contrived to be mixed with the food of the intended victim, who is often a stranger whom the master of the house has for several months treated with the greatest kindness and attention, and sometimes, to lull suspicion, given him his daughter in marriage. As soon as the poisonous and intoxicating drug operates, the master of the house unattended takes the devoted person into the temple, leads him three times round the idol, and on his prostrating himself [171]before it, takes this opportunity of cutting his throat.

He collects with the greatest care the blood in a small bowl, which he first applies to the lips of the ferocious goddess, and then sprinkles it over her body; and a hole having been dug at the feet of the idol for the corpse, he deposits it with great care to prevent discovery. After this the Karhâda Brâhman returns to his family, and spends the night in mirth and revelry, convinced that by the bloodthirsty act he has propitiated the goddess for twelve years. On the morning of the following day the corpse is taken from the hole in which it had been thrown, and the idol deposited till next Dasahra, when a similar sacrifice is made.”

There seems reason to suspect that even in the present day such sacrifices are occasionally performed at remote shrines of Kâlî or Durgâ Devî. Within the last few years a significant case of the kind occurred at Benares.

There are numerous instances from Nepâl.64 At Jaypur, near Vizagapatam, the Râja is said, at his installation in 1861, to have sacrificed a girl to Durgâ.65 A recent case of such sacrifice with the object of recovering hidden treasure occurred in Berâr; a second connected with witchcraft at Muzaffarnagar.66 At Chanda and Lanji in the Province of Nâgpur there are shrines to Kâlî at which human sacrifices to the goddess have been offered almost within the memory of this generation.

Besides the religious form of human sacrifice in honour of one of these bloodthirsty deities, there are forms of the rite which depend on the mystic power attributed to human flesh and blood in various charms and black magic.

In connection with human flesh a curious story is told of a man who went to bathe in the Ganges, and met one of the abominable Faqîrs known as Augars or Aghorpanthis, who carry about with them fragments of a human corpse. He saw the Faqîr cut off and eat a piece of the flesh of a corpse, and he then offered him a piece, saying [172]that if he ate it he would become enormously rich.

He refused the ghastly food, and the Faqîr then threw a piece at him which stuck to his head, forming a permanent lump.67 In one of the tales of Somadeva the witches are seen flying about in the air, and say, “These are the magic powers of witches’ spells, and are due to the eating of human flesh.” In another the hero exchanges an anklet with a woman for some human flesh.68

The same mysterious power is attributed to human blood. The blood of the Jinn has, it is hardly necessary to say, special powers of its own. Thus, in one of the Kashmîr stories the angel says: “This is a most powerful Jinn. Should a drop of his blood fall to the ground while life is in him, another Jinn will be quickly formed therefrom, and spring up and slay you.”69 Bathing in human blood has been regarded as a powerful remedy for disease.

The Emperor Constantine was ordered a bath of children’s blood, but moved by the prayers of the parents, he forbore to apply the remedy and was rewarded by a miraculous recovery. In one of the European folk-tales a woman desirous of offspring is directed to take a horn and cup herself, draw out a clot of blood, place it in a pot, lute it down and only uncover it in the ninth month, when a child would be found in the pot. In the German folk-tales, bathing in the blood of innocent maidens is a cure for leprosy.70

The same beliefs largely prevail in India. In 1870, a Musalmân butcher losing his child was told by a Hindu conjuror that if he washed his wife in the blood of a boy, his next infant would be healthy. To ensure this result a child was murdered. A similar case occurred in Muzaffarnagar, where a child was killed and the blood drunk by a barren woman.71 In one of the tales of Somadeva the pregnant [173]queen asks her husband to gratify her longing by filling a tank with blood for her to bathe in. He was a righteous man, and in order to gratify her craving he had a tank filled with the juice of lac and other extracts, so that it seemed to be full of blood. In another tale the ascetic tells the woman that if she killed her young son and offered him to the divinity, another son would certainly be born to her. Quite recently at Muzaffarnagar a childless Jât woman was told that she would attain her desire if she bathed in water mixed with the blood of a Brâhman child.

A Hindu coolie at Mauritius bathed in and drank the blood of a girl, thinking that thereby he would be gifted with supernatural powers. It would be easy to add largely to the number of instances of similar beliefs.72

Survivals of Human Sacrifice

There are, in addition, numerous customs which appear to be survivals of human sacrifice, or of the blood covenant, which also prevailed in Arabia.73 Among the lower castes in Northern India the parting of the bride’s hair is marked with red, a survival of the original blood covenant, by which she was introduced into the sept of her husband. We see that this is the case from the rites of the more savage tribes.

Among the Kewats of Bengal, a tiny scratch is made on the little finger of the bridegroom’s right hand and of the bride’s left, and the drops of blood drawn from these are mixed with the food. Each then eats the food with which the other’s blood has been mixed. Among the Santâls blood is drawn in the same way from the little finger of the bride and bridegroom, and with it marks are made on both above the clavicle.74

Human Sacrifice and Buildings

One standing difficulty at each decennial census has been the rumour which spreads in remote tracts that Government [174]is making the enumeration with a view of collecting victims to be sacrificed at some bridge or other building, or that a toll of pretty girls is to be taken to reward the soldiery after some war.

Thus, about a fort in Madras it had long been a tradition that when it was first built a girl had been built into the wall to render it impregnable.75 It is said that a Râja was once building a bridge over the river Jargo at Chunâr, and when it fell down several times he was advised to sacrifice a Brâhman girl to the local deity. She has now become the Marî or ghost of the place, and is regularly worshipped in time of trouble.76 In Kumaun the same belief prevails, and kidnappers, known as Dokhutiya, or two-legged beasts of prey, are said to go about capturing boys for this purpose.

In Kâthiâwâr, if a castle was being built and the tower would not stand, or if a pond had been dug and would not hold water, a human victim was offered.77 The rumour that a victim was required spread quite recently in connection with the Hughli Bridge at Calcutta and the Benares water-works.

The Narmadâ, it was believed, would never allow herself to be bridged until she carried away part of the superstructure, and caused the loss of lives as a sacrifice. At Ahmadâbâd, by the advice of a Brâhman, a childless Vânya was induced to dig a tank to appease the goddess Sîtalâ. The water refused to enter it without the sacrifice of a man.

As soon as the victim’s blood fell on the ground, the tank filled and the goddess came down from heaven and rescued the victim.78 In building the fort of Sikandarpur in Baliya, a Brâhman and a Dusâdh girl were both immolated.79 The Vadala lake in Bombay refused to hold water till the local spirit was appeased by the sacrifice of the daughter of the village headman. When the Shorkot fort was being built one side repeatedly fell down.

A Faqîr advised the Râja to put a first-born son under the rampart. This was done and the wall stood. The child’s mother went to Mecca, and returned with an army of Muhammadans; but they [175]could not take the fort. Then a Faqîr transformed himself into a cock and flew on the roof of the palace, where he set up a loud crow. The Râja was frightened and abandoned the place. As he was leaving it, he shouted, “Shame on thee, O Fort! to remain standing!” and the walls at once fell down.80

Modifications of Human Sacrifice

There are also many instances of the transition from human sacrifices to those of a milder form. Thus, when Ahmadâbâd was building, Mânik Bâwa, a saint, every day made a cushion, and every night picked it to pieces.

As he did so the day’s work fell down. The Sultân refrained from sacrificing him, but got him into a small jar and kept him there till the work was over.81 The Villâlis of Pûna on the fifteenth day after a death shape two bricks like human beings, dress them, and lay them on a wooden stool. They weep by them all night, and next day, taking them to the burning ground, cremate them. Among the Telugu Brâhmans of Pûna, if a man dies at an unlucky time, wheaten figures of men are made and burnt with the corpse.

The Konkani Marâthas of Kanara on the feast of Raulnâth get a man to cut his hand with a knife and let three drops of blood fall on the ground.82 Formerly in Hoshangâbâd, men used to swing themselves from a pole, as in the famous Bengal Charakh Pûjâ. In our territories this is now uncommon, as the village headmen being afraid of responsibility for an accident, generally, instead of a man, fasten up a white pumpkin, which they swing about.83

At the installation of a Bhuiya Râja, a man comes forward whom the Râja touches on the neck, as if about to [176]cut off his head. The victim disappears for three days; then he presents himself before the Râja, as if miraculously restored to life. Similarly, the Gonds, instead of a human sacrifice, now make an image of straw, which they find answers the purpose.

The Bhuiyas of Keunjhar used to offer the head of their prime minister to Thakurânî Mâî. She is now transformed into the Hindu Durgâ and accepts a sacrifice of goats and sheep.84 In Nepâl, after the Sithi Jâtra feast, the people divide into two parties and have a match at stone-throwing; formerly this used to be a serious matter, and any one who was knocked down and fell into the hands of the other side was sacrificed to the goddess Kankeswarî.

The actual killing of the victim, as in the case of sacrifices to the goddess Bachhlâ Devî, has now been discontinued under the influence of British officers.85 We shall meet later on in another connection other instances of mock fights of the same kind.

Momiâî

In connection with human sacrifice may be mentioned the curious superstition about Momiâî or mummy.

The virtues of human fat as a magical ointment appear all through folk-lore. Othello, referring to the handkerchief which he had given to Desdemona, says,—

“It was dyed in the mummy which the skilful

Conserved of maidens’ hearts.”

Writing of witches Reginald Scot says: “The devil teacheth them to make ointment of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the air and accomplish all their desires. After burial they steal them out of their graves and seethe them in a cauldron till the flesh be made potable, of which they make an ointment by which they ride in the air.” In Macbeth the first witch speaks of—

“Grease that sweaten

From the murderer’s gibbet.”

[177]

Indian witches are believed to use the same mystic preparation to enable them to fly through the air, as their European sisters are supposed to use the fat of a toad.86 Human fat is believed to be specially efficacious for this purpose.

In one of Somadeva’s stories the Brâhman searches for treasure with a candle made of human fat in his hand.87 One of the Mongol Generals, Marco Polo tells us, was accused of boiling down human beings and using their fat to grease his mangonels; and Carpini says that when the Tartars cast Greek fire into a town they used to shoot human fat with it, in order to cause the fire to burn more quickly.88 So, in Europe a candle of human fat is said to have been used by robbers with the Hand of Glory to prevent the inmates waking, and on the Scotch border the torch used in the mystic ceremony of “saining” was made from the fat of a slaughtered enemy.89

In India, the popular idea about Momiâî is that a boy, the fatter and blacker the better, is caught, a small hole is bored in the top of his head, and he is hung up by the heels over a slow fire. The juice or essence of his body is in this way distilled into seven drops of the potent medicine known as Momiâî.

This substance possesses healing properties of a supernatural kind. Sword cuts, spear thrusts, wounds from arrows and other weapons of warfare are instantly cured by its use, and he who possesses it is practically invulnerable. In Kumaun, this substance is known as Nârâyan Tel or Râm Tel, the “oil of Vishnu or Râma.”

It is further believed that a European gentleman, known as the Momiâî-wâla Sâhib, has a contract from Government of the right of enticing away suitable boys for this purpose. He makes them smell a stick or wand, which obliges them to follow him, and he then packs them off to some hill station where he carries on this nefarious manufacture.

As an instance of this belief, “A very black servant of a [178]friend of mine states that he had a very narrow escape from this Sâhib at the Nauchandi fair at Meerut, where Government allows him to walk about for one day and make as many suitable victims as he can by means of his stick. The Sâhib had just put his hand in his pocket and taken out the stick, which was dry and shrivelled and about a span long, when the servant with great presence of mind held out his hands and said, ‘Bas! Bas!’ ‘Enough! enough!’

Thus intimidated, the Sâhib went away into the crowd. In connection with Momiâî, a lady here narrowly escaped a very uncanny reputation. Some of her servants gave out that she possessed a Momiâî stick, for which she had paid a hundred rupees. On hearing this an inquiry was made which brought out that the lady had missed a pod of vanilla about seven inches long, of a very special quality, that she kept rolled up in a piece of paper among some of her trinkets.

The ayah who mislaid it was scolded for her carelessness, and told that it was worth more than she thought. She promptly put two and two together. The shrivelled appearance which is supposed to be peculiar to mysterious sticks, such as snake charmers produce, the fuss made about it, and the value attached to it convinced her that her mistress owned a Momiâî stick.”90

These mystic sticks appear constantly in folk-lore. We have the caduceus of Hermes, the rod of Moses, the staff of Elisha, the wand of Circe, or of Gwydion or Skirni. In one of Somadeva’s tales the Kapâlika ascetic has a magic stick which dances. In one of the Kashmîr tales the magic wand placed under the feet of the prince makes him insensible, when laid under his head he revives.

Many people in England still believe in the divining rod which points out concealed springs underground.91

Every native boy, particularly those who are black and fat, believes himself a possible victim to the wiles of the dreaded Momiâî Sâhib, who frequents hill stations because [179]he is thus enabled to carry on his villainous practices with comparative impunity and less danger of detection.

Even to whisper the word Momiâî is enough to make the crowd of urchins who dog the steps of a district officer when he is on his rounds through a town, disperse in dismay. Surgeons are naturally exposed to the suspicion of being engaged in this awful business, and some years ago most of the coolies deserted one of the hill stations, because an enthusiastic anatomist set up a private dissecting-room of his own.

Freemasons, who are looked on by the general native public as a kind of sorcerers or magicians, are also not free from this suspicion. That such ideas should prevail among the rural population of India is not to be wondered at, when in our own modern England it is very commonly believed that luminous paint is made out of human fat.92

The Dânapurwâla Sâhib

Another of these dreaded Sâhibs is the Dânapurwâla Sâhib, or gentleman from Dinapur. Why this personage should be connected with Dinapur, a respectable British cantonment, no one can make out. At any rate, it is generally believed that he has a contract from Government for procuring heads for some of the museums, and he too has a magic stick with which he entices unfortunate travellers on dark nights and chops off their heads with a pair of shears. The influence of these magic wands by smelling may perhaps be associated with the fact that the nose is a spirit entry, as we have seen in the case of sneezing.

Fetish Stones

To return after this digression to fetish stones. Of this phase of belief we have well-known instances in the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey, which is associated [180]with the dream of Jacob, and the Hajuru’l Aswad of Mecca, which Sir R. Burton believed to be an aërolite. No one will bring a stone from the Sacred Hill at Govardhan near Mathura, because it is supposed to be endowed with life.

The Yâdavas, who are connected with the same part of the country, had a stone fetish, described in the Vishnu Purâna, which brought rain and plenty. There are numerous legends connected with many of these fetish stones, such as that in the temple of Daksha at Kankhal and Gorakhnâtha in Kheri,93 which are said to owe the fissures in them to the blow of the battle-axe or sword of one of the iconoclast Muhammadan Emperors. Of Gorakhnâtha it is said that Aurangzeb attempted to drag up the great Lingam, and failed to do so even with the aid of elephants.

When he came to investigate the cause of his failure, tongues of flame burst from the bottom of the pillar.

The stalactites in the Behâr Hills are regarded as the images of the gods.94 The pestle and mortar in which a noted Darvesh of Oudh used to grind his drugs are now worshipped, and a leading family in the Lucknow District keep before their family residence a large square stone which they reverence.

They say that their ancestors brought it from Delhi, and that it is the symbol of their title to the estates, which were granted to them by one of the Emperors. He enjoined them to take it as the foundation of their settlement, and since that time each new Râja on his accession presents flowers, sweetmeats, and money to it.95

A great rock in the river above Badarinâth, the famous shrine in the Hills, is worshipped as Brahm Kapâl or the skull of Brahma, and Nandâ Devî, the mountain goddess of the Himâlaya, is worshipped in the form of two great stones glittering with mica, and reflecting the rays of the sun.96 At Amosi in the Lucknow District they worship at marriages and birth of boys the door-post of the house of an old Râjput leader, named Binâik, who is honoured with the [181]title of Bâba or “father.”97 At Deodhûra in the Hills the grey granite boulders near the crest of the ridge are said to have been thrown there in sport by the Pândavas. Close to the temple of Devî at the same place are two large boulders, the uppermost of which is called Ransila, or “the stone of battle,” and is cleft through the centre by a deep, fresh-looking fissure, at right angles to which is a similar rift in the lower rock.

A small boulder on the top is said to have been the weapon with which Bhîmsen produced these fissures, and the print of his five fingers is still to be seen upon it. Ransila itself is marked with the lines for playing the gambling game of Pachîsi, which, though it led to their misfortunes, the Pândavas even in their exile could not abandon.

There are many places where the marks of the hoofs of the horse of Bhîmsen are shown.98 “One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was regarded during many ages with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse’s hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed to have been made by one of the celestial chargers.”99

Fetishes among the Santâls

The Santâls, like all uncivilized races, have a whole army of fetishes. A round piece of wood, nearly a foot in length, the top of which is painted red, is called Banhî, or “the protector of the jungle.”

Another stands for Laghû, the goddess of the earth, who is sometimes represented by a mountain. An oblong piece of wood, painted red, stands for Mahâmâî, “the great Mother,” Devî’s daughter; a small piece of white stone daubed with red is Burhiyâ Mâî, or “the old Mother,” her granddaughter; an arrow-head stands for Dûdhâ Mâî, “the milk Mother,” the daughter of Burhiyâ; a trident painted red represents the monkey god Hanumân, who executes all the orders of Devî. “Sets of these symbols are placed, one on the east and one on the [182]west of their huts to protect them from evil spirits, snakes, tigers, and all sorts of misfortune.”100

Very similar to this is the worship of Bîrnâth, the fetish of the Mirzapur Ahîrs. His platform, which is made of clay, usually contains one, three, or five rude wooden images, each about three feet high, with a rough representation of a human face sculptured on the top. He was, it is said, an Ahîr who was killed by a tiger, and he is now worshipped by them in times of trouble.

His special function is to protect the cattle from beasts of prey. The worshipper bathes, plasters his platform with fresh clay, and laying his offering on it, says: “Bîrnâth! Keep our cattle safe and you will get more.” The same form of worship prevails all along the Central Indian Hills. “In the south of the Bhandâra District the traveller frequently meets with squared pieces of wood, each with a rude figure carved in front, set up close to each other. These represent Bangarâm, Bangarâ Bâî, or Devî, who is said to have one sister and five brothers, the sister being styled Kâlî, and four out of the five brothers being known as Gantarâm, Champarâm, Nâikarâm, and Potlinga.

They are all deemed to possess the power of sending disease and death upon men, and under these or other names seem to be generally feared in the region east of Nâgpur. Bhîmsen, again, is generally adored under the form of one or two pieces of wood standing three or four feet in length above the ground, like those set up in connection with Bangarâm’s worship.”101

Fetish Stones which Cure Disease

Many of these stones have the power of curing disease, and the water with which they have been bathed is considered a useful medicine. This is the case with a number of sacred Mahâdeva Lingams all over the country. A common proverb speaks of the old woman who is ready enough to eat the Prasâd or offering to the god, but hesitates [183]to drink the water in which his feet have been washed.

In Western India no orthodox Brâhman will eat his food till he has thrice sipped the water in which his Sâlagrâma stone has been washed.102 We have already noticed the fetish bowl, the washings of which are administered by midwives to secure easy parturition. So, in Western lands the stones fetched by Merlin had the power of healing if washed in water and the patient bathed in it.103 Stone celts are, in Cornwall, supposed to impart a healing effect to water in which they have been soaked.104 In Java a decoction of the lichen which grows on fetish stones is used as a remedy for disease.105 In the Isle of Lewis cattle disease is attributed to the bites of serpents, and the suffering animals are made to drink water into which charm stones are put; in the

Highlands large crystals of a somewhat oval shape were kept by the priests to work charms with, and water poured thereon was given to cattle as a preventative of disease.106

Fetish Stones the Abode of Spirits

The virtue of all these fetish stones rests in their embodying the spirits of gods or deified men. As we have shown, this is a common principle of popular belief. In one of Miss Stokes’s Indian tales, “The man who went to seek his fate,” the fate is found in stones, some standing up and some lying down.

The man beats the stone which embodies his fate because he is miserably poor. Mr. H. Spencer thinks that the idea of persons being turned into stones may have arisen from instances of actual petrifaction of trees and the like; but this is not very probable, and it is much simpler to believe with Dr. Tylor that it depends on the principles of animism.107 [184]

Family Fetishes

Some fetishes, like the Bombay Devaks, are special to particular families. Such is the case with the Thârus, a non-Aryan tribe in the sub-Himâlayan Tarâî. Each member of the tribe constructs a hollow mound in front of his door, and thereon erects a stake of Palâsa wood (Butea frondosa), which is regarded as the family fetish and periodically worshipped.

Tool Fetishes

Next comes the worship of the tool fetish, which, according to Sir A. Lyall, is “the earliest phase or type of the tendency which later on leads those of one guild or walk in life to support and cultivate one god, who is elected in lieu of the individual trade fetishes melted down to preside over their craft or trade interests.”108

A good example of this is the pickaxe fetish of the Thags.

When Kâlî refused to help them in the burial of their victims she gave them one of her teeth for a pickaxe, and the hem of her lower garment for a noose. Hence the pickaxe was venerated by the Thags. Its fabrication was superintended with the utmost care, and it was consecrated with many ceremonies.

A lucky day was selected, and a smith was appointed to forge it with the most profound secrecy. The door was closed against all intruders; the leader never left the forge while the manufacture was going on; and the smith was allowed to do no other work until this was completed. Next came the consecration.

This was done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, and care was taken that the shadow of no living thing fell upon the axe. The consecrator sat with his face to the west, and received the implement in a brass dish. It was then washed in water which was allowed to fall into a pit made for the purpose.

Then further ablutions followed, the first in sugar and water, the second in sour milk, and the third in spirits. The axe was then marked from the head to the point with [185]seven spots of red lead, and replaced on the brass dish with a cocoanut, some cloves, white sandalwood, and other articles.

A fire was next made of cowdung and the wood of the Mango and Ber tree. All the articles deposited on the brass plate, with the exception of the cocoanut, were thrown into the fire, and when the flame rose the Thag priest passed the pickaxe with both hands seven times through the fire. The cocoanut was then stripped of its husk and placed on the ground. The officiant, holding the axe by the point, asked: “Shall I strike?” The bystanders assented, and he then broke the cocoanut with the blunt end of the weapon, exclaiming, “All hail, Devî! Great Mother of us all!”

The spectators responded, “All hail, Devî, and prosper the Thags.” If the cocoanut was not broken at one blow, all the labour was lost; the goddess was considered unpropitious, and the entire ceremony had to be repeated.

The broken shell and kernel of the cocoanut were then thrown into the fire, the pickaxe wrapt in white cloth was placed on the ground towards the west, and all present prostrated themselves before it.109

Here we have another example of magic in its sympathetic form, the use of sundry spirit scarers, which have been already discussed, and the cocoanut representing an actual human victim.

Weapons and Implement Fetishes

In the same way soldiers and warlike tribes worship their weapons. Thus, the sword was worshipped by the Râjputs, and when a man of lower caste married a Râjput girl, she was married, as in the case of Holkar, to his sword with his kerchief bound round it.110 This sword-worship is specially performed, as by the Baiswârs of Mirzapur and the Gautam sept of Râjputs.

The Nepâlese worship their weapons and regimental colours at the Dasahra festival. At the Diwâlî, [186]or feast of lamps, on the first day they worship dogs; on the second day cows and bulls; on the third day capitalists worship their treasure under the name of Lakshmî, the goddess of wealth; on the fourth day every householder worships as deities the members of his family, and on the fifth day sisters worship their brothers.111

The same customs prevail among the artisan castes in Northern India. The hair-scraper of the tanner is worshipped by curriers, and the potter’s wheel, regarded as a type of productiveness, is reverenced at marriages by many of the lower castes. Even the clay which has been mixed by the potter has mystic powers.

When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, a lump of this clay is brought, and the wound is touched with it while a spell is recited.112 Carpenters worship their yard measure; Chamârs swear by the shoemaker’s last, and the children of the Darzi or tailor are made to worship the scissors.

In Bengal, the Alakhiya sect of Saiva ascetics profess profound respect for their alms-bag; the carpenters worship their adze, chisel, and saw; the barbers their razors, scissors, and mirror. At the Srîpanchamî, or fifth day of the month of Mâgh, the writer class worship their books, pens, and inkstand.

The writing implements are cleaned, and the books, wrapped in white cloth, are strewn over with flowers and the leaves of young barley.113

The same customs prevail in Bombay. A mill is the Devak or guardian of oil-makers; dancing girls worship a musical instrument; jewellers worship their pincers and blowpipe; curriers worship an axe, and market gardeners a pair of scales.114

In the Panjâb, farmers worship their oxen in August, their plough at the Dasahra festival, and they have a ceremony at the end of October to drive away ticks from their cattle; shepherds worship their sheep at the full moon of [187]July; bankers and clerks worship their books at the Diwâlî festival; grain-sellers worship their weights at the Dasahra, Diwâlî, and Holî, and, in a way, every morning as well. Oilmen worship their presses at odd times; artisans salute their tools daily when they bathe; and generally the means of livelihood, whatever they may be, are worshipped with honour at the Diwâlî, Dasahra, and Holî.115 So the Pokharna Brâhmans, who are said to have been the navvies who originally excavated the lake at Pushkar, worship in memory of this the Kudâla, or mattock.116

All these customs are as old as the time of the Chaldeans, “who sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag, because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous.”117

Among these implement fetishes the corn-sieve and the plough, the basket, the broom, and the rice-pounder are of special importance.

The Corn-sieve

The corn-sieve or winnowing basket, the Mystica vannus Iacchi of Virgil, has always enjoyed a reputation as an emblem of increase and prosperity, and as possessing magical powers. The witch in Macbeth says:—

“Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, Master of the Tiger;

But in a sieve I’ll thither sail.”

It was used in Scotland to foretell the future at Allhallow Eve. Divination was performed with a pair of shears and a sieve. Aubrey describes how “the shears are stuck in a sieve, and the maidens hold up the sieve with the top of their fingers by the handle of the shears, then say, ‘By St. Peter and St. Paul, he hath not stolen it.’ After many adjurations the sieve will turn at the name of the thief.”118

In India the sieve is the first cradle of the baby, and in [188]Bombay the winnowing fan in which a newly-born child is laid is used on the fifth day for the worship of Satvâî. This makes it impure, and it is henceforward used only for the house sweepings. In Northern India, when a mother has lost a child, she puts the next in a sieve and drags it about, calling it Kadheran or Ghasîtan, “the dragged one,” so as to baffle the Evil Eye by a pretence of contempt.

All through Upper India, at low-caste marriages, the bride’s brother accompanies the pair as they revolve in the marriage shed, and sprinkles parched grain over them out of a sieve as a charm for good luck and a means of scaring the demon which causes barrenness. So Irish brides in old times used to be followed by two attendants bearing high over the heads of the couple a sieve filled with meal, a sign of the plenty that would be in the house, and an omen of good luck and the blessing of children.119 We have already seen that this rite survives in the custom of flinging rice over the newly-married pair as they leave for the honeymoon.

This habit of scaring the spirits of evil by means of the sieve appears in a special usage at the Diwâlî festival. Very early in the morning the house-mother takes a sieve and a broom, and beats them in every corner of the house, exclaiming, “God abide, and poverty depart!” The fan is then carried outside the village, generally to the east or north, and being thrown away, is supposed, like the scapegoat, to bear away with it the poverty and distress of the household. The same custom prevails in Germany.

The Posterli is imagined to be a spectre in the shape of an old woman. In the evening the young fellows of the village assemble, and with loud shouts and clashing of tins, ringing of cow-bells and goat-bells, and cracking of whips, tramp over hill and dale to another village, where the young men receive them with like uproar. One of the party represents the Posterli, or they draw it in a sledge in the shape of a puppet, and leave it standing in a corner of the [189]other village. In the same way the Eskimo drive the demon Tuna out of their houses.120

Among the Kols, when a vacancy occurs in the office of the village priest, the winnowing fan with some rice is used, and by its magical power it drags the person who holds it towards the individual on whom the sacred mantle has fallen. The same custom prevails among the Orâons.121

The Greeks had a special name, Koskinomantis, for the man who divined in this way with the sieve, and the practice is mentioned by Theocritus.122 The sieve is very commonly used in India as a rude form of the planchette.

Through the wicker-work of the raised side or back a strong T-shaped twig is fixed, one end of which rests on the finger. A question is asked, and according as the sieve turns to the right or left, the answer is “Yes” or “No.” This is exactly what is known as “Cauff-riddling” in Yorkshire and Scotland.123 In the eastern districts of the North-Western Provinces, when the Ojha or “cunning man” is called in to cure disease, or possession by evil spirits, he puts some sesamum into a sieve, shakes it about, and then proceeds to identify the ghost concerned by counting the number of grains which remain stuck between the reeds.

At a Santâl cremation, a man takes his seat near the ashes, and tosses rice on them with a winnowing fan till a frenzy appears to seize him, and he becomes inspired and says wonderful things.124

It is one of the curiosities of comparative folk-lore that this instrument should be credited with magical powers all over two continents.125

The winnowing basket, again, perhaps from its association, [190]like the winnowing fan, with the sacred grain, has mystic powers. In Scotland it was used in the rite of creeling as a means of scaring barrenness. “The young wedded pair, with their friends, assemble in a convenient spot.

A small creel or basket is prepared for the occasion, into which they put some stones; the young men carry it alternately, and allow themselves to be caught by the maidens, who have a kiss when they succeed. After a great deal of innocent mirth and pleasantry, the creel falls at length to the young husband’s share, who is obliged generally to carry it for a long time, none of the young women having compassion upon him.

At length his fair mate kindly relieves him from his burden; and her complaisance, in this particular, is considered as a proof of her satisfaction at the choice she has made.126”

In Bengal, at the full moon immediately following the Durgâ Pûjâ, the festival of Lakshmî, the goddess of wealth, is held. In every Hindu house a basket, which serves as the representative of prosperity, is set up and worshipped. This basket, or corn measure, is filled with paddy, encircled with a garland of flowers, and covered with a piece of cloth. They sit up all night and watch for Lakshmî to arrive, and any negligence in watching is believed to bring misfortune on the family.127

The Broom

The same idea applies to the broom used in sweeping the house or collecting the grain on the threshing-floor. We have already seen the use of it to drive out poverty. “Pythagoras warned his followers against stepping over a broom. In some parts of Bavaria, housemaids in sweeping out the house are careful not to step over the broom for fear of the witches. Again, it is a Bavarian rule not to step over a broom while a confinement is taking place in a house; otherwise the birth will be tedious, and the child will always remain small with a large head. But if anyone [191]has stepped over a broom inadvertently, he can undo the spell by stepping backwards over it again.”128 So, in Bombay, they say you should never step over a broom, or you will cause a woman to suffer severely in childbed.

In Bombay, some old Hindu woman, to cure a child affected by the Evil Eye, waves salt and water round its face and strikes the ground with a broom three times; and among the Bani Isrâîls of Bombay, when the midwife drives off the blast of the Evil Eye, she holds in her left hand a shoe, a winnowing fan, and a broom.129 In Italy, the broom is an old Latin charm against sorcery.

The Beriyas, a gypsy tribe of the Ganges-Jumna Duâb, drive off the disease demon with a broom. In Oudh, it is said, when a broomstick has been done with, it should always be laid down, and not left standing. Mahâ-Brâhmans, who gain by officiating at funeral ceremonies, are alleged to violate this rule in order to cause deaths.130

The Rice-pounder

The rice-pounder, too, has magical powers. We have seen that it is one of the articles waved round the heads of the bride and bridegroom to scare evil spirits. In Bengal, it is worshipped when the child is first fed with grain. And there is a regular worship of it in the month of Baisâkh, or May.

The top is smeared with red lead, anointed with oil, and offerings of rice and holy Dûrva grass made to it. The worship has even been provided with a Brâhmanical legend. A Guru once ordered his disciple to pronounce the word Dhenk at least one hundred and eight times a day. Nârada Muni was so pleased with his devotion, as he is the patron deity of the rice-pounder, that he paid him a visit riding on one, and carried off his votary to heaven.131 [192]

The Plough

Next comes the plough as a fetish. The carrying about of the plough and the prohibition common in Europe against moving it on Shrove Tuesday and other holidays have, like many other images of the same class, been connected with Phallicism.132 But, considering the respect which an agricultural people would naturally pay to the chief implement used in husbandry, it is simpler to class it with the other tool fetishes of a similar kind. In India, as in Europe on Plough Monday,133 there is a regular worship of the plough at the end of the sowing season, when the beam is coloured with turmeric, adorned with garlands, and brought home from the field in triumph.

After that day it is considered unlucky to use it or lend it. The beam is put up in the village cattle track when rinderpest is about, as a charm to drive away the disease. Among some castes the polished share is fixed up in the marriage shed during the ceremony. Among the Orâons, the bride and bridegroom are made to stand on a curry stone, under which is placed a sheaf of corn resting on the plough yoke, and among the same people their god Darha is represented by a plough-share set upon an altar dedicated to him.134 Here we have the mystic influence of grain and iron combined with the agricultural implement fetish.

Fire

Fire is undoubtedly a very ancient Hindu protective fetish, and its virtue as a scarer of demons is very generally recognized. One of the earliest legends of the Hindu race is that recorded in the Rig Veda, where Agni, the god of fire, concealed himself in heaven, was brought down to earth by Mâtarisvan, and made over to the princely tribe of Bhrigu, in which we have the Oriental version of the myth of Prometheus.

In the Vedas, Agni ranks next to the Rain god, and takes precedence of every other god in connection [193]with sacrificial rites. Even the Sun godling is regarded as a form of the heavenly fire. One of the titles of Agni is Pramantha, because on each occasion when he was required he was summoned by the friction of the Aranî, or sacred fire-drill. This word Pramantha is probably the equivalent of the Prometheus of the Greeks.

PRIESTS OF THE SACRED FIRE.

Origin of Fire-worship

According to Dr. Tylor, “the real and absolute worship of fire falls into two great divisions, the first belonging to fetishism, the second to polytheism proper, and the two apparently representing an earlier and later stage of theological ideas.

The first is the rude, barbarous adoration of the actual flame which he watches writhing, devouring, roaring like a wild animal; the second belongs to an advanced generalization that any individual fire is a manifestation of one general elemental being, the fire god.”135 In a tropical country it would naturally be associated with the worship of the sun, and with that of the sainted dead as the medium by which the spirit wings its way to the other world. Among many races fire is provided for the ghost after interment, to enable it to warm itself and cook its food.

As Mr. Spencer points out, the grave fire would tend to develop into kindred religious rites.136

The Sacred Fire

But it is almost certainly erroneous to class the sacred fire as an institution peculiar to the so-called Aryan races. The Homa is, of course, one of the most important elements of the modern Hindu ritual; but at the same time it prevails extensively as a means of propitiating the local or village godlings among many of the Drâvidian races, who are quite as likely to have discovered for themselves the mystical art of fire production by mechanical means, as to have [194]adopted it by a process of conscious or unconscious imitation from the usages of their Hindu neighbours.

The production of fire by means of friction is a discovery which would naturally occur to jungle races, who must have constantly seen it occur by the ignition of the bamboo stalks rubbed together by the blasts of summer. From this would easily be developed the very primitive fire-drill or Asgara, used to this day by the Cheros, Korwas, Bhuiyas and other Drâvidian dwellers in the jungle.

These people even to the present day habitually produce fire in this way. A small round cavity is made in a dry piece of bamboo, in which two men alternately with their open hands revolve a second pointed piece of the wood of the same tree. Smoke and finally fire are rapidly produced in this way, and the sparks are received on a dry leaf or other suitable tinder.

The use of the flint and steel is also common, and was possibly an early and independent invention of the same people. Even to the present day in some of their more secret worship of the village godlings of disease, fire is produced for the fire sacrifice by this primitive method.

The Fire-drill

What has been called the Aryan fire-drill, the Aranî, which in one sense means “foreign” or “strange,” and in another “moving” or “entering,” “being inserted,” is not apparently nowadays used in the ordinary ritual for the production of fire for the Homa or fire sacrifice. The rites connected with the sacred fire have been given in detail in another place.137 In Northern India, at least, the production of the sacred fire has become the speciality of one branch of the Brâhmans, the Gujarâti, who are employed to conduct certain special services occasionally conducted at large cost by wealthy devotees, and known as Jag or Yaksha, in the sense of some particular religious rite.

The Aranî in its modern form consists of five pieces. The Adhararanî is the lower bed of the instrument, and is [195]usually made of the hard wood of the Khadira or Khair—Acacia catechu. In this are bored two shallow holes, one, the Garta, a small shallow round cavity, in which the plunger or revolving drill works and produces fire by friction. Close to this is a shallow oblong cavity, known as the Yonî or matrix, in which combustible tinder, generally the husk of the cocoanut, is placed, and in which the sparks and heated ashes are received and ignited.

The upper or revolving portion of the drill is known as Uttararanî or Pramantha. This consists of two parts, the upper portion a piece of hard, round wood which one priest revolves with a rope or cord known as Netra. This part of the implement is known as Mantha or “the churner.” It has a socket at the base in which the Sanku, a spike or dart, is fixed. This Sanku is made of a softer wood, generally that of the Pîpal, or sacred fig tree, than the Adhararanî or base; and each Aranî is provided with several spare pieces of fig wood for the purpose of replacing the Sanku, as it becomes gradually charred away by friction.

The last piece is the Upamantha or upper churner, which is a flat board with a socket. This is pressed down by one priest, so as to force the Sanku deep and hard into the Garta or lower cavity, and to increase the resistance.

The working of the implement thus requires the labour of two priests, one of whom presses down the plunger, and the other who revolves the drill rapidly by means of the rope. It is not easy to obtain specimens of the implement, which is regarded as possessing mystical properties, and the production of the sacred fire is always conducted in secret.

We have in one of the African folk-tales a reference to the production of the fire by friction, in which the hyæna gets his ear burnt.138 In one of the tales of Somadeva we read, “Then the Brâhman blessed the king and said to him, ‘I am a Brâhman named Nâga Sarman, and bear the fruit, I hope, from my sacrifice. When the god of fire is pleased with this Vilva sacrifice, then Vilva fruits of gold will come out of the fire cavity.

Then the god of fire will appear in [196]bodily form, and grant me a boon, and so I have spent much time in offering Vilva fruits.’ Then the seven-rayed god appeared from the sacrificial cavity, bringing the king a golden Vilva fruit of his tree of valour.”139

The Agnikunda, the hole or enclosed space for the sacred fire, out of which, according to the popular legend, various Râjput tribes were produced, is thus probably derived from the Garta or pit out of which the sparks fly in the fire-drill.

The Agnihotri Brâhman has to take particular care to preserve the germ of the sacred fire, as did the Roman vestal virgins. It is in charge of the special guardians at some shrines, such as those of Sambhunâth and Kharg Joginî at Nepâl.140

The Muhammadan Sacred Fire

But it is not only in the Hindu ritual that the sacred fire holds a prominent place. Thus, in ancient Ireland, the sacred fire was obtained by the friction of wood and the striking of stones, and it was supposed “that the spirits of fire dwelt in these objects, and when the priests invoked them to appear, they brought good luck to the household for the coming year, but if invoked by other hands on that special day, their influence was malific.”141

So, among the Muhammadans in the time of Akbar, “at noon of the day when the sun enters the 19th degree of Aries, the whole world being surrounded by the light, they expose a round piece of a white shining stone, called in Hindi Sûrajkrant.142 A piece of cotton is then held near it, which catches fire from the heat of the stone. The celestial fire is committed to the care of proper persons.”143 Perhaps [197]the best example of the Muhammadan sacred fire is that at the Imâmbâra at Gorakhpur.

There it was first started by a renowned Shiah Faqîr, named Roshan ’Ali, and has been maintained unquenched for more than a hundred years, a special body of attendants and supplies of wood being provided for it. There seems little reason to believe that the fire is a regular Muhammadan institution; it has probably arisen from an imitation of the customs of the Hindu Jogis.

It is respected both by Hindus and Musalmâns, and as in the case of the fires of the same kind, maintained by many noted Jogis, its ashes have a reputation as a cure for fever. We shall meet with the same belief of the curative effects of the ashes of the sacred fire in the case of the Holî.

The ashes of the Jogi’s fire form a part of many popular charms. In Italy, the holy log burnt on Christmas Eve, which corresponds to the Yule log of the North of Europe, is taken with due observances to the Faunus, or other spirits of the forest.144 In Ireland part of the ashes from the bonfire on the 24th of June is thrown into sown fields to make their produce abundant.145 The ceremony of strewing ashes on the penitent on Ash Wednesday dates from Saxon times.146 A modern Muhammadan of the advanced school has endeavoured to rationalize the curative effect of the ashes of the Gorakhpur fire by the suggestion that it is the potash in it which works the cure, but probably the element of faith has much to do with it.147

Volcanic Fire; Will-o’-the-Wisp

Fire of a volcanic nature is, as might be expected, regarded with veneration. Such is the fire which in some places in Kashmîr rises out of the ground.148

The meteoric light or Shahâba is also much respected. In Hoshangâbâd there is a local godling, known as Khapra [198]Bâba, who lives on the edge of a tank, and is said to appear in the darkness with a procession of lights.149 In Rohilkhand and the western districts of Oudh, one often hears of the Shahâba. In burial-grounds, especially where the bodies of those slain in battle are interred, it is said that phantom armies appear in the night. Tents are pitched, the horses are tethered, and lovely girls dance before the heroes and the Jinn who are in their train.

Sometimes some foolish mortal is attracted by the spectacle, and he suffers for his foolhardiness by loss of life or reason. Sometimes these ignes fatui mislead the traveller at night, as Robin Goodfellow “misleads night wanderers, laughing at their harm,” or the Cornish piskies, who show a light and entice people into bogs.150 There appears to be in Northern India no trace of the idea which so widely appears in Europe, that such lights are the souls of unbaptized children.151

The Tomb Fetish

Next comes the respect paid to the cairn which covers the remains of the dead or is a mere cenotaph commemorating a death. We have already seen instances of this in the pile of stones which marks the place where a tiger has killed a man, and in the cairns in honour of the jungle deities, or the spirits which infest dangerous passes.

The rationale of these sepulchral cairns is to keep down the ghost of the dead man and prevent it from injuring the living. We see the same idea in the rule of the old ritual, that on the departure of the last mourner, after the conclusion of the funeral ceremony, the Adhvâryu, or officiating priest, should place a circle of stones behind him, to prevent death overtaking those who have gone in advance.152

THE FOOTPRINTS OF VISHNU.

The primitive grave-heap grows into the cairn, and the [199]cairn into the tomb or Stûpa.153 In the way of a tomb Hindus will worship almost anything. The tomb of an English lady is worshipped at Bhandâra in the Central Provinces. At Murmari, in the Nâgpur District, a similar tomb is smeared with turmeric and lime, and people offer cocoanuts to it in the hope of getting increased produce from their fields.

The tomb of an English officer near the Fort of Bijaygarh in the Aligarh District was, when I visited the place some years ago, revered as the shrine of the local village godling. There is a similar case at Râwalpindi. There is a current tale of some people offering brandy and cigars to the tomb of a European planter who was addicted to these luxuries in his lifetime, but no one can tell where the tomb actually exists.154

Miscellaneous Fetishes

We have already referred to the Sâlagrâma fetish. Akin to this is the Vishnupada, the supposed footmark of Vishnu, which is very like the footmark of Hercules, of which Herodotus speaks.155

There is a celebrated Vishnupada temple at Gaya, where the footprint of Vishnu is in a large silver basin under a canopy, inside an octagonal shrine. Pindas or holy balls and various kinds of offerings are placed by the pilgrims inside the basin and around the footprint.156 It was probably derived from the footmark of Buddha, which is a favourite subject in the early Buddhistic sculptures. Dr. Tylor, curiously enough, thinks that it may have some connection with the footmarks of extinct birds or animals imprinted on the strata of alluvial rocks.157 [200]

Even among Muhammadans we have the same idea, and the Qadam-i-Rasûl, or mosque of the footprint of the Prophet at Lucknow, used to contain a stone marked with his footmarks, which was said to have been brought by some pilgrim from Arabia. It disappeared during the Mutiny.158 There is another in a mosque at Chunâr and at many other places.

The same respect is paid to the footprint of Râmanand in his monastery at Benares, and the pin of Brahma’s slipper is now fixed up in the steps of the bathing-place at Bithûr, known as the residence of the infamous Nâna Sâhib, where it is worshipped at an annual feast. [201]

________________________________________

1 Frazer, “Totemism,” 1; and his article on “Totemism,” in “Encyclopædia Britannica,” 9th Edition.

2 “Principles of Sociology,” i. 367.

3 “Origin of Civilization,” 260, and Mr. Frazer’s criticism, loc. cit.

4 “Tribes and Castes,” Introduction.

5 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 13, note.

6 Robertson-Smith, “Kinship,” 17.

7 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 90.

8 Quoted by McLennan, “Fortnightly Review,” 1869, p. 419.

9 O’Brien, “Multâni Glossary,” 260 sq.

10 “Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh,” s.v.v.

11 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 254; Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” ii. 327.

12 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 91.

13 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 95.

14 “Dissertation on the Proper Names of Panjâbis,” 155 sq.

15 “Totemism,” 3 sqq.

16 Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 52.

17 Hardy, “Manual of Buddhism,” 251.

18 Max Müller, “Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” 290.

19 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 10; ii. 215; iii. 144; Ball, “Jungle Life,” 455 sqq.

20 Dalton “Descriptive Ethnology,” 126, 162, 165 sq., 179, 185, 209, 231, 265.

21 “Jungle Life,” 600.

22 Campbell, “Notes,” 7.

23 “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” i. 223.

24 Rhys, “Lectures,” 508.

25 Dalton, loc. cit., 327.

26 Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” Introduction, xlvii.

27 Conway, “Demonology,” i. 27; “Herodotus,” ii. 73.

28 Dalton, loc. cit., 131, note; Ball, loc. cit., 89; Robertson-Smith, “Kinship,” 306 sq.

29 “Berâr Gazetteer,” 187.

30 Campbell, “Notes,” 8 sqq.

31 Gubernatis, “Zoological Mythology,” ii. 68; and see Lang, “Custom and Myth,” 113.

32 Conway, “Demonology,” i. 144.

33 Tod, “Annals,” i. 599.

34 Gubernatis, loc. cit., ii. 13.

35 “Golden Bough,” ii. 26 sqq., 58.

36 “Asiatic Studies,” 264.

37 “Archæological Reports,” vi. 137.

38 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 88.

39 “Tribes and Castes,” ii. Appendix; Dalton, loc. cit., 162, note, 213, 254.

40 Lyall, “Asiatic Studies,” 9 sq.

41 Ferrier, “Caravan Journey,” 186.

42 Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” v. 425 sq.; Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales of Bengal,” 193 sq., 277; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” 48 sqq.; “Wideawake Stories,” 277 sqq.; Campbell, “Popular Tales,” i. 2; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 323; and for fidelity tests, Grimm, “Household Tales,” i. 453; Tawney, loc. cit., ii. 601; Clouston, “Popular Romances,” i. 43, 173.

43 Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 352, note; “Wideawake Stories,” 419 sqq.; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iv. 201; Knowles, “Folk-tales of Kashmîr,” 192; Tawney, loc. cit., i. 123; Grimm, loc. cit., ii. 400; Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 178.

44 Also see Rhys, “Lectures,” 206; Lang, “Custom and Myth,” 52.

45 “Notes,” 163.

46 Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 418.

47 “Modern Egyptians,” i. 325.

48 “Popular Romances,” 177.

49 “Popular Romances,” 412, 415.

50 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 173.

51 “Bombay Gazetteer,” xi. 56; xvii. 698.

52 Robertson-Smith, “Kinship,” 49; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 306; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 164; Conway, “Demonology,” ii. 284.

53 Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 268; Lang, “Custom and Myth,” i. 270.

54 “Indo-Aryans,” ii. 70 sqq.; “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1876; Max Müller, “Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” 408 sq.; Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” i., ii., passim; Wilson, “Rig Veda,” i. 59, 63; “Essays,” ii. 247 sqq.; Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 800, 867.

55 Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 336; ii. 253, 338; Temple, “Wideawake Stories,” 147; Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales,” 194; Miss Frere, “Old Deccan Days,” 6; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 111, 129; iii. 105.

56 Burton, “Arabian Nights,” iv. 376.

57 Tawney, loc. cit., i. 212; ii. 616.

58 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 65.

59 Ibid., ii. 22.

60 “Central India,” ii. 210.

61 Campbell, “Khondistân,” passim; Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 384 sqq.; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 47; Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 130, 147, 176, 285 sq., 281.

62 Chevers, “Medical Jurisprudence,” 406, 411.

63 Campbell, “Notes,” 339: Wilson, “Indian Caste,” ii. 22 sq.; “Bombay Gazetteer,” x. 114.

64 Wright, “History,” 11, note.

65 Ball, “Jungle Life,” 580.

66 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 112, 148. And for other instances, see Balfour, “Cyclopædia,” iii. 477 sqq.

67 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 75.

68 Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 157, 214.

69 Knowles, “Folk-tales,” 2.

70 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 294; Grimm, “Household Tales,” i. 396; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” i. 98.

71 “Report Inspector-General Police, N.-W.P., 1870,” page 93; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 205; iii. 74, 162; Chevers, “Medical Jurisprudence,” 842, 396; Campbell, “Notes,” 338.

72 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 148; iii. 71.

73 Robertson-Smith, “Kinship,” 48 sq.

74 Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” i. 456; Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 220.

75 “Folk-lore,” iv. 260.

76 “North Indian Notes and Queries.” iii. 40.

77 Ibid., 106.

78 “Bombay Gazetteer,” ii. 349; xiv. 49.

79 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 194.

80 For similar instances see “Archæological Reports,” v. 98; “Bombay Gazetteer,” xx. 144; “Folk-lore Records,” iii. Part II. 182; “Oudh Gazetteer,” iii. 253; “Indian Antiquary,” xi. 117; “Calcutta Review,” lxxvii. 106; Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales,” 130; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 110; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 27, 63, 93; Campbell, “Santâl Folk-tales,” 106.

81 “Bombay Gazetteer,” iv. 276.

82 Campbell, “Notes,” 348.

83 “Settlement Report,” 126.

84 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 146, 281; Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” i. 115.

85 Wright, “History,” 35 sq., 156, note, 126, 205, 265.

86 Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 594.

87 Ibid., i. 306.

88 Yule, “Marco Polo,” ii. 165.

89 Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 54, 200 sqq.

90 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 190.

91 Miss Cox, “Cinderella,” 485; Knowles, “Kashmîr Tales,” 199; Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 88; Rhys, “Lectures,” 241; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 612.

92 “Folk-lore Record,” iii. Part II. 283. For the commonplace Momiâî which is used as an application by women before parturition, see Watt’s “Dictionary of Economic Products,” ii. 115.

93 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 284.

94 Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. 526.

95 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 303; ii. 415.

96 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 311, note, 792 sq.

97 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 61.

98 “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 282.

99 Macaulay, “Battle of Lake Regillus,” Introduction.

100 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 220.

101 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 2.

102 Campbell, “Notes,” 30.

103 Rhys, “Lectures,” 193.

104 Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 427.

105 Forbes, “Wanderings of a Naturalist,” 103.

106 Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 165; Brand, “Observations,” 621.

107 “Principles of Sociology,” i. 109 sq., 310; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 353.

108 “Asiatic Studies,” 16.

109 “Illustrations of the History and Practice of the Thags.” 46 sqq.

110 Tod, “Annals,” i. 615; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 221.

111 Oldfield, “Sketches,” 344, 352.

112 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 54.

113 Wilson, “Essays,” ii. 188; Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” i. 16, 67, 93, 451.

114 Campbell, “Notes,” 9.

115 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 20 sq., 93.

116 Tod, “Annals,” ii. 320.

117Habakkuk i. 16; Isaiah xxi. 5.

118 Dyer, “Popular Customs,” 400; Brand, “Observations,” 209, 773; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 25.

119 Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 116.

120 Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” 934; Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 164.

121 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 187, note, 247.

122 “Idylls,” iii. 31.

123 Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 52; Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 43, 92.

124 Dalton, loc. cit., 218.

125 “Academy,” 23rd July, 1887; “Gentleman’s Magazine,” July, 1887; Henderson, loc. cit., 233; Brand, “Observations,” 233; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 207.

126 Brand, “Observations,” 354.

127 “Calcutta Review,” xviii. 60.

128 “Folk-lore,” i. 157; ii. 293.

129 Campbell, “Notes,” 53.

130 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 202; Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 79.

131 “Calcutta Review,” xviii. 51.

132 Cox, “Mythology of the Aryan Nations,” ii. 119, note.

133 Chambers, “Book of Days,” i. 94 sq.

134 Dalton, loc. cit., 252, 258.

135 “Primitive Culture,” ii. 277.

136 “Principles of Sociology,” i. 158, 273.

137 “Tribes and Castes of the N.-W. P. and Oudh,” s. v. “Agnihotri.”

138 Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 547.

139 Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 322.

140 Oldfield, “Sketches,” ii. 242; Wright, “History,” 35; and compare Prescott, “Peru,” i. chap. 3; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 312.

141 Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 126.

142 Abul Fazl appears to have confused Sûraj Sankrânti or the entrance of the sun into a constellation with Sûrya-Kânta or “sun-beloved,” the sun-crystal or lens, which gives out heat when exposed to the rays of the sun.

143 Blochmann, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” i. 48.

144 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 103.

145 “Folk-lore,” iv. 359.

146 Dyer, “Popular Customs,” 92.

147 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 199.

148 Hugel, “Travels,” quoted by Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 314.

149 “Settlement Report,” 121.

150 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 117; Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 81; Campbell, “Popular Tales,” ii. 82.

151 Conway, “Demonology,” i. 225.

152 Rajendra Lâla Mitra, “Indo-Aryans,” i. 146.

153 Ferguson, “Tree and Serpent Worship,” 88; “History of Indian Architecture,” 60; Cunningham, “Bhilsa Topes,” 9; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 254 sq.

154 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 63; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 8; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 93.

155 iv. 82.

156 Monier-Williams, “Hinduism and Brâhmanism,” 309.

157 Tennent, “Ceylon, ii. 132; Ferguson, “Indian Architecture,” 184, with engraving; Tylor, “Early History,” 116.

158 “Oudh Gazetteer,” ii. 370.