Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/50

 22 Presidential Address.

wished to show respect or to avoid ill luck. Omens and signs of all sorts occur. Sacrifice and ceremonial is described : the ceremonial sprinkling of a King,^ the ceremony of condemning a criminal,^ the plowing festival,^ the ceremony by which a man took on himself the sins of a King.* Various ancient taboos are mentioned, some having their parallels in Greece ; ^ and there are many allusions, obscure no doubt, to marriage laws,^ animal clans, caste rites, and the like. For the history of caste, indeed, the book is of special importance ; and a great deal may be learnt from it of the social conditions of the time, and the daily life of the people. It is quite clear that the book reflects a definite period of culture. The Warriors are superior to the Brahmins, and are always mentioned first in an enumeration ; the line between the castes is not clearly drawn. There are also aboriginal tribes, black and ugly as compared with the ruling race, and sometimes cannibals. These are often mixt up with goblins and ogres and rare snakes. The pantheon con- tains few great gods, but there are worlds of gods answer- ing to the world of men, and the King of the Gods is Sakka, or Indra. Worship is generally paid to ghosts and to trees. The ghosts, ox petas, are unhappy creatures; for they are afflicted with a continual torment of hunger and thirst, but their mouths are no bigger than the prick of a pin. Every tree holds its spirit; and we also read of spirits indwelling in the city gates and battlements, and even a deity in the King's parasol.

I hope this sketch may turn the attention of some one to the Buddhist literature. Hardly a generation has passed since the study of Pali began in the West ; and now, thanks to the energy of Prof Rhys Davids, most of its literature is printed. Besides the Jataka, now soon to be

^Jat. iv. 220, 246.

^iv. 119.

''iv. S3,

104.


 * iv. 230, cp. V. 71.

^ii. 15.

^ii- 175,

247