Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/458

418 applied to an animate or an inanimate object, and especially is this to be observed in the case of things held to have been subjected to the action of miracles or magic, i.e. to things charmed or enchanted by visible or invisible agency, the main use for which in the Legends, it may be observed, is to assist the hero or the progress of the tale about him: e.g., enchanted dice made out of such uncanny objects as dead men's bones, which always win.

The well-known enchanted or protecting circle or line, within which no harm can come, taking us very far back in Indian belief, is but hinted at in the Legends, though its descendants the ascetic's necklace and rosary commonly occur. Rut the more practical means of defence, such as magical or enchanted arrows, play a considerable part. Thus, there are several instances of the use of fiery arrows, varied in one quaint instance as the fiery quoit, a survival of the classical magical quoit of Krishna, and in a still quainter one as an arrow of cold. This last variant is clearly due to an expansion of the general idea of the fiery arrow, for it is introduced for the purpose of combating fire: "Then again Arjun shot an arrow of cold and all the enemies' bodies trembled. Then were the sun's rays obscured and day turned into night. Frost and cold began to fight with fire."

Magic numbers of course exist in India, chiefly in the forms of multiples or parts or combinations of seven and twelve, but I do not think that the peasant mind sufficiently grasps such abstract notions as numbers to lay much stress on any enchanted properties that they may be supposed to possess. I have carefully collected every number that occurs in the Legends, and the general conclusion is this: that as to the larger numerals no clear conception is entertained at all. They all mean a very large quantity to the peasant story-teller, and for that purpose one large figure is as good as another. As to the smaller numerals, there is but a dim idea that there is something holy or sacred or supernatural