Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/476

 43^ The Folklore in the Legends of the Punjab.

of perfectly involuntary and uncontrollable misfortune — such as widows, for instance — is quite incalculable ; and a little consideration will show why it is that the nostrums for the prevention of the dreaded sin of misfortune are interminable, both in variety and number.

Another most fruitful result of the primitive view of mis- fortune is the idea of ceremonial uncleanness, an " un- fortunate " condition clearly the consequence of inadver- tence even to the savage, which has led to unnumbered ceremonies and customs in practical life and to many incidents in tale and story. The ceremonially unclean condition, however much it may be natural or the result of mere chance, is perceived in a dim way to be somehow sinful or the result of sin ; and hence the nostrums for avoid- ing the consequences thereof. But when the condition is intensified and exhibits itself in a loathsome or continuous form, then to the popular mind its sinful origin is no longer doubtful. The story of that prominent, mysterious, obvi- ously unclean, loathsome, and much dreaded disease, leprosy, and of the native treatment of lepers in India, will bring out all these points ; and the subject of lepers and leprosy, if taken up as a folklore study, would be found to cover nearly the whole range of belief and customs among the folk. In the Legends we see much of it. There, the separation, iso- lation, and treatment of lepers is due to their uncleanness, the origin of leprosy lies in sin and in the punishment of sin, and its cure is due to ceremonial cleansing.

In another direction, the doctrine, so to speak, of ill-luck has led to very serious practical consequences, a fact which ]s clearly brought out by an incident in the Legends. The birth of a daughter is announced to Raja Sarkap just as he had lost his great gambling match. " Kill her," said Raja Sarkap, " she has been born at an unlucky moment, and has brought me bad luck." But, as an instance where female mfanticide, based on ill-luck, has been widely resorted to, though from a different concrete origin, the whole of the