Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/151

 of Sociology and Folklore. 141

The rites here described are closely connected with the Foundation Sacrifice, which is familiar to all students of folk-lore, and need not be further discussed.

The house is liable to pollution in various ways, even by trifling accidents, such as bees hiving on it or any kind of fungus growing inside. These necessitate minor forms of purification. Worst of all is a death occurring inside the house. Hence a dying person is removed into the open air. Semi-nomadic tribes, like the Bhils, when a death occurs, permanently abandon their huts, and make a new settle- ment elsewhere. They also believe that the best cure for a man who has been long sick is to change his house. This is not what we call " change of air " ; but a long-continued illness is supposed to be due to some dangerous spirit influence attached to the site. It is obvious that the idea of " pollution " is secondary ; the primitive idea is that the place is occupied by some sulky, malicious spirit, irritated at being disturbed from his accustomed abode, and ready to give vent to his ill will on the occupants if they are lax in doing the necessary suit and service.

Almost every part of the house has its special sanctity, or is subject to some special taboo. The most vital question in a caste-ridden country is the preparation of food. Hence the cooking-place is carefully guarded, and even its position and orientation are regulated because it might ofi^end the spirit world if its opening was fixed in the wrong direction. But it is remarkable that the Hindus seem never to have impersonated the hearth spirit, like the Greek Hestia, who played no small part in the developed polytheism, but was never established as a separate anthropomorphic per- sonality. Neither of the sacred trees, varieties of the fig, should be planted in the yard, lest the leavings of food may fall upon them, and thus offend the deities who reside in them. It is also dangerous to plant the Nim tree there, because it is the tree of ascetics, and contemplation of it by the householder may rob him of his desire for offspring,