Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/230

 2 1 8 Miscellanea.

Hindu Notes.

Hanuman, the son of Anjanadevi, and faithful servant of Rama, did not marry, and it is said he will not marry till all the Malas or Pariahs are swept off the face of the earth, and till all the Moduga trees {Butea frondosa) are destroyed, root and branch. Hanuman is said to fast for a week when he sees a Pariah. Pariahs go to him to worship or circumambulate his temple early in the morning with wet clothes, with a vow to free themselves from Sani or Evil Luck. Hanuman is said to possess power to remove the adversities of men.

Monkeys {Macaais Radiatiis) were originally men — Kappu- vandlu or farmers. They contracted debts, and their creditors came upon them one day unawares, and demanded the money due to them. Nonplussed and unable to pay, the monkeys took their present shape, and putting their tails underneath their posteriors, fled to the jungle.

The bug is said to give birth to little ones seven times during a night, and not being satisfied with this, went to God to ask for a boon of offspring.

A child is never shown a looking-glass, for fear that if he sees his reflection there he will become unwell. If, however, he insists upon having it, the looking-glass (usually a hand looking-glass) will be turned the other side — the reverse side — and shown to the child.

When suffering from hemicrania a Secunderabad barber will put a dried seed, called a pddasha gtnga, in one of his earholes, believing that by so doing he will be relieved of the pain, which \\(t cdiWi pddasha ?ioppi, or one-sided headache.

" Kamoodu kari bogga agai Kamudu pendlam naku agai." " The God of Love has turned to blackest charcoal. The God of Love's wife has become mine." ' Thus sing the street urchins at the time of the Holi, or the Hindu Saturnalia.

" Voozalo Kumbalo^

Daisumma Biddalu Daiyalo." " Swing ho ! swing ho !

Daisumma's daughters are Devils."

Thus sings the Hindu child from its swing.

' After having been burnt. At the Holi, effigies of Madana the God of Love are burnt. Madana's wife was Rati.

- Sometimes Jumpalo. The precise meaning of the word cannot be given. It may mean the backward and forward motion of a swing. Voozalo in Telufru means a swinc-