Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/147

 of Sociology and Folkloi'e. 137

goats and fowls are offered to demons of the lower order who are supposed to have been dwelling in the wood used in the building. This is said to be a survival of tree worship ; more probably a propitiation of demons. The rite is followed by a clan feast, showing that the matter concerns the tribe, and that the kinsmen share in the risk.^

The rite practised by the Tiyan tribe is intended to propitiate Vastu-purusha, the local spirit, the genius loci. The Gulikhan, a troublesome spirit, is appeased. All the workmen walk thrice round the house, breaking coconuts on the walls, and howling to drive away any lurking spirits. The house is then put in charge of a man who is not the ow^ner. It is not easy to get a person to undertake this dangerous office, for Gulikhan, the ejected spirit, is believed to possess him. Hence the " scapegoat " is usually a poor man who undertakes the duty for a con- sideration. After the workmen have given over charge to him, he is taken into the middle room, and made to stand facing the door, with one foot on a plantain leaf, apparently a primitive mode of insulation. Pieces of the thatch are tied to his clothes, and he shuts the door, opens it, and shuts it again. From outside the head carpenter asks him if he has taken over charge. He replies evasively : " Have the workmen got their wages ? " The carpenter does not answer, because, if he did, the danger would be transferred to himself. So he replies : " I did not ask you about our wages. Have you taken charge } " He answers : " Yes." Then he opens the door and with the plantain leaf in his hand makes his escape without looking back. The people pelt him with bananas, and hoot at him as he runs. After this, cow's milk boiled with rice is cooked in the house, of which everyone partakes, and the owner is able to occupy his house. ^

' Anantha Krishna Iyer, o/'. cit. i. 2S1 et seq.

-Thurston, op. cit. vii. 91 et seq. The rite i<nown as \'astu-yagam, practised at the foundation-laying by the Xaniliutiri I'ralimans of Cochin, shows inort-