Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/91

Rh thrust his whole hand into the emperor's mouth. On being asked why he did this, he answered: 'Your majesty's soul was just on the point of leaving your body, and these rascals made it a sign to depart quickly, and I was obliged to keep it in at any cost.

[The belief that the soul comes out of the mouth is too common to need illustration; but one or two exx. from Greek may be cited as specially interesting. Herondas, 3. 3: "Thrash this boy until his miserable soul is at his very lips"—. Homer constantly speaks of the soul passing the —"the fence of the teeth." The poets have made a pretty use of this. Plato, Frag, 1 (Bergk., p. 299): —"I kist Agathon, and stayed his soul at the lips; for the poor thing came up as tho' with intent to issue." Anthol., 5. 14: "Sweet is Europa's kiss, even if it touch but the lips. But it is not so her kiss touches: the pressure of her lips draws up the soul from the toes and finger-tips"— All will remember Tennyson's "And our spirits rushed together at the meeting of the lips."]

159. Ceremonies in worship of a Saint. (The family priest wears things which belonged to the saint himself.)

196. Snake-worship in Kulu.

197. It is the wont, on first visiting one of the passes in Kulu, to set up a stone on end. A sheep or goat is killed, and given to the companions, or some food is distributed. It is said to have once been customary to write the name on the stone, and the shapes certainly suggest that they were once carved roughly in human shape. [Jacob in Bethel.]

198. Saharanpur. Village god is a heap of earth besmeared with cow-dung. Offerings to the Manes. Votive offerings of wooden statuettes of children offered by women to procure birth or long life for their children.

199. The Holi Festival.—Burning of a sacred tree. They leap over its ashes to get rid of itch, etc. Villagers try to steal one of the rags tied to this tree in a neighbouring village, which is very propitious. [See 117, above.]

In Gwalior they burn heaps of cow-dung instead. A nude figure (called Nathuram) is often set up in bazaars. The women sing obscene songs to him. One kind of image is well carved, of wood, and preserved; the other is of brick, disgusting to look at, and is broken by blows of shoes and bludgeons when the cow-dung is fired. No household can be without an image of N. One is placed by the couch of a bride when she first visits her husband. Barren women, and those whose children do not live, pray to him for help.