Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/300

278 is worshipped before ploughing is begun, and in western India women walk ceremonially round a white cow and her red calf with a view to atone for any injury which they may at some previous time have inflicted on the animal.

At Hindu sacred places, or even in the ordinary bazars, when the religious tension which periodically seizes all Orientals is fanned into a flame by the preaching of some fanatic, the slaughter of a cow sets the whole population in a state of frenzy. If the offence be committed by a Muhammadan it is often avenged by flinging a pig or its blood into a mosque, and then the rival sects fly at each others' throats until the authorities are able to intervene. In particular the slaughter of cows as a ritual act by Muhammadans at the Idu-'l-azha festival, which is regarded as a commemoration of Abraham's willingness to slay his son Isaac, is strongly resented, and the ill-feeling thus aroused has led to serious disturbances between gangs of rival fanatics. Only a couple of years ago dangerous riots, attended with serious loss of life, occurred at one of these celebrations in Calcutta, and in many other cities and towns it has been from time to time necessary to garrison the bazars with British troops. The prohibition of cow-slaughter has been eagerly advocated by the Hindu orthodox party; but this proposal has always been resisted on the ground that it would deprive the European population, and still more the Muhammadans and the menial classes, who are free from the taboo imposed upon the true Hindu, of an important supply of food. In some Native States, like Nepal, Rajputana, and Kashmir, and even in Burma under the late government, the killing of cows is, or