Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/296

 2/8 Collectanea.

shrine, nailed her hair to the tree, and then cut it from her head. The woman was free then, and the hair remained there. On the third day they resurrected the Madu Sami doll, and peace reigned as before. This was done after the rice-harvest was over. Mooni- andi Sami is always propitiated by a sacrifice or thank-ofFering or scapegoat. They say : " Here, devil, is your portion, or sacrifice, now leave us alone, you have had your share."

R. J. Drummond. Belgravia, Talawakelle,

23rd March, 1902.

Unlucky and Lucky Children, and some Birth Superstitions.

{Supra, pp. 63, 188, 197.)

The First-Born. — In the Punjab the first-born son of a wife is peculiarly uncanny, especially subject to magical influences and endowed with supernatural powers. On the one hand his hair is useful in witchcraft, and on the other its possession would give a wizard power over him. He himself possesses considerable magical powers, for he can stop hail by throwing a stone back- wards from, or by cutting a hailstone with, a knife ; and he can stay a dust storm by standing naked in front of it. He is also pecuharly subject to lightning, and is not allowed to go out on a rainy day. Snakes also become torpid in his presence. (Fuller notes on this or similar ideas would be welcome.)

A first-born child, whether a boy or a girl, should not be married in Jeth ^ (or, one account adds, in Magh), nor should the mother eat first-fruits in that month, because as she devours them so too will the fates devour her first-born. The position of the first-born is probably due to the fact that, if a son, his father is born again in him, so that the father is supposed to die at his

' But according to the Matha-Khatra Granth, sloka 15, of Bhardwaj Rikhi, it is only necessary to avoid marriage in Jetb, if both parties he Jit It as, i.e., bom in Jeth, or if it is not possible to avoid Jeth the ceremony should not be held in the Kirt Nackshatra during that month.