Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/444

 404 The Folklore in the Legends of the Panjab.

vidual children in a family, is common enough in England. It has occurred in fact in the present writer's own family, where the trees dedicated to himself and his contemporaries are still standing at the ancestral family home. It is possible, therefore, that the custom of what we may now call token-trees, the world-wide habit of planting trees to commemorate local and even general events of striking importance, such as the Revolution Elms just outside the ancestral home above mentioned, and many a famous oak and ash and yew one can readily call to mind, partly has its roots in the fundamental idea of sympathetic magic.

The existence of miraculous and magical powers pre- sumes the existence of recognised — or may we call them orthodox ? — processes for producing miracles and magic, opening up the wide subject of charms. But of these, as matters too well known to require explanation, there is not much detail in the Legejids, apart from that necessary to briefly explain the miraculous acts themselves ; and such as occurs is confined to that all-important division of the sub- ject in the eyes of a superstitious peasantry of prophylactic charms. The importance of these to the people is further emphasised by the fact that when charms are mentioned it is, in every case but one, for the prevention or cure of snake- bite, perhaps the greatest dread of all of the Indian peasant, a situation in which he probably feels more helpless and more inclined to invoke supernatural aid than in any other. Such charms are indeed so much mixed up with miracles proper as to form in reality a variety of miraculous cures. Besides charms against snakebite, there are mentioned some as existing against sorcerers, i.e. the charmers themselves ; and among real prophylactic charms against general bodily harm, only the wearing of the sacred tulsi (sweet basil) beads occurs.

The absence of detailed accounts of charms and of the performances of exorcists must not, as above hinted, be taken as implying their scarcity, or only a languid interest