Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/260

 244 ^^^^ Lifting of the Bride.

tive. Most of these appear to fall within one or other of

the classes which we have been considering, that is to say,

they are either due to the belief in some kind of fertility

charm or are connected with taboo.

Thus, among fertility charms we may class the seating of

the bride on a bull's hide, which was an ancient Aryan rite

still prevailing among the Hindus of South India and the

Gypsies of Transylvania.^ Other Hindus, probably with

the same object, seat her on a mat made of sacred grass, or

of the leaves of some holy tree ; or she is placed on a stool

which is sometimes provided with a cushion made of sacred

grass, and the Manchu bride sits on a special red chair.^

In some parts of India a bullock-saddle or a plough-yoke is

selected as the seat of the bride, or she is made to step over

it, thus claiming a share in the invigorating life of the cattle

and field-crops.^ Or again, she stands in a basket such as

is used in garnering the grain on the threshing-floor, a

custom which is very common in Northern India, where a

line of baskets is often laid on the ground from the place

where she leaves her litter to the door of the house, and

stepping on these she makes her ceremonious entry into

her husband's household. It is a comical sight to watch the

bride performing this feat ; it is rather like the crossing

of one of our fords, where the current is strong and the

stepping-stones placed unpleasantly far apart. In order

to intensify the charm, these baskets are often half filled

with millet or some other grain.^ In some cases the

charm seems to be supposed to act vicariously, as when

the influence reaches the bride through her mother, who

' Folklore Congress Report, 273, 340 ; Boswell, Mamtal of Nellore District, 23 ; Hartland, Legend of Perseus, i., 124, note.

Castes of the North- Westerti Provinces, iii., 141, 290 ; ii., 291 ; Bombay Gazet- teer, xvii., 205.; XX., 163 ; Folk-Lore, i., 491.
 * Risley, Tribes and Castes 0/ Bengal, i., 449, 503 ; Crooke, Tribes and

' Nelson, Manual of the Madura District, 82 ; Bombay Gazetteer, xx., 93 ; xxii., 14 ; Risley, op. cit., i., 508, 467 ; for the Manchus, Folk-Lore, i., 487.

op. cit. ii., 87.
 * Bombay Gazetteer, xvii., 177 ; xviii., pt. i., 350, 442 ; xxiii., 95 ; Crooke,