Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/297

 Collectanea. 279

birth ; and in certain Khatri sections, e.g.^ the Kochhar,i his funeral rites are actually performed in the fifth month of the mother's pregnancy. Probably herein lies an explanation of the dev-kdj, or divine nuptials, a ceremony which consists in a formal re-marriage " of the parents after the birth of their first son. The wife leaves her husband's house and goes, not to her parents' house, but to the house of a relative, whence she is brought back like a bride. This custom prevails among the Khanna, Kapur, Malhotra, Kakar, and Chopra, the highest sections of the Hindu Khatris.^

These ideas are an almost logical outcome of the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and it inevitably results that if the first-born be a girl she is peculiarly ill-omened.

Twins. — There appear to be no superstitions in the Punjab connected with twins (ditld or jonkri) ; but in one part of the Kangra district the child born a/iter twins is called laiihka or "little."

The Sequence of Births. — There is little to be added to the notes already given (pp. 63, 68), but the following details may be of interest. In Kangra a child of one sex born after hvo of the other sex is called trelar,^ and with that primitive confusion of thought which makes no distinction between that which is holy and that which is accursed, we have the proverb : " Trelar rele ya sangek,'' i.e., "a trelar either brings evil or good fortune."

In the same district a child of one sex born after three of the other is called cholar, and is, especially if a boy, propitious. As such he is presumably an object of jealousy to the fates, and his nose is drilled, like a girl, or he is given away to a low-caste man (a Barar or a Chuhra), from whom the child is redeemed by the parents by paying money or grain.

' According to one account, a Kochhar wife in the sixth month of her pregnancy pretends to be displeased and goes away from her home. Her husband shaves his head, beard, &c., and goes after her with a few men of his brotherhood. On finding her, he entreats her to return and promises her a present of jewellery, whereupon she consents to come back home.

'•* Should a wife bear twenty children (!), she must also be remarried to her husband. The ceremony of remarriage is precisely the same as that of a first marriage, but it is performed on the roof of the house.

^ The Mohammedan Gadhiok Sheikhs of JheUim also retain it. It costs about half as much as a real marriage.

■* Trel^a. third ploughing ; Jukes, PVesfem Punjabi Diciio7iary. s.z: