Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/92

84 200. Worship of Dulha Deo.

201. The rivalry between Allahabad and Benares.

202. Production of Sacred Fire by the fire-drill described.

203. Agricultural Ceremonies and Omens (N.-W. P.). Interesting and detailed. We find dedications of a portion to the gods; and the ceremonial sowing is done with face veiled, that no inauspicious person may be seen. [The Roman custom, for which here a reason is given.]

The crow is an evil omen; so are kites and vultures. Many curious superstitions of birds. If a man answers the owl, he is sure to die. When a wagtail first appears everyone bows to it. [The Greeks bowed to the kite; Arist., Birds, 502; the scholiast says it was because they betokened the coming of spring.]

The howl of a wolf or jackal in a village; bark of a dog, and twitching of its ears; cat crossing the road before a journey: sight of leper, paralytic, beggar—all are unlucky. Worst of all, is to see a one-eyed man; and an oil-seller is nearly as bad.

204. Worship of Nim Tree.—Supposed to propitiate the goddesses of all kinds of epidemics which prevail in summer.

205. 243. A Sweeper-Saint. (Miraculous Conception, or Woman conceives by eating two barley-corns; another eats some resin.) The son was hallowed, serpents were his playthings, and arched over his pillow as he slept. After his death, he returns to visit his wife by night on a winged charger. (A well-told and exciting tale.) A full account of the ritual of this saint's cult is given. One part of it was invented to give "the mushroom ritual some respectable origin and antiquity". Symbolised sacrifice of a goat by merely slitting its left ear.

119. Palamau: the Bihors. Marriage Ceremonies. The bride runs out of the feast, and the man chases her. 152. Marriage by Capture: traces at Sirsa.

121. Traces of fossil man in India.

123. Bards and Genealogists: the Charan tribe of Kathiawar. When a C. cannot get what he wants, or thinks he has been unjustly dealt with, he will cut or wound himself, or perhaps take the life of some member of his family, in order that the blood of the victim may rest upon the head of his oppressor. The mere threat of this usually gains his end.

124. Bawariyas of Sirsa. Four divisions, which eat not together nor intermarry. They say they will not eat fish. [They are apparently becoming Hinduised, like so many other Indian tribes.] A queer mode of catching a certain kind of lizard:—Tie a wisp of straw