Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/232

 206 182. Impious to drink water while standing (Mohammedan).

183. Surat.— Kayasth caste. A marriage is incomplete unless a similar ceremony is done for a pair of doves.

A childless man, to avoid failing to marry a daughter (which is held to be most meritorious), marries a Tulasi plant to an idol of Krishna, the plant symbolising the daughter.

185. Why this plant is revered.

187. Evil qualities of the fig tree in folklore.

188. Worship of the sweeper's broom.

190. Saharanpur.—To propitiate the goddess of small-pox. Part of the ceremonial is to get a goat, garland its neck, put a piece of red cloth on its back, smear the forehead with red lead, pierce the ears and drop some of the blood at the shrine, then let loose the goat out of the village. It is then no man's property, "any one might catch it."

191. Ahmedabad.—Girl sometimes married to a bunch of flowers, which is then cast into a well. Legend explaining this.

192. Cocoa-nuts offered to appease a deity, "as resembling human skulls, apparently."

231. Bombay: Vetala Stone Circles.—The centre stone is the god's house; the ring, houses for the god's watchmen. Vetala and his host take visible shape twice a month, at midnight, full-moon and no-moon.

235. Saharanpur.—Snake-worship changes into worship of Mahadeva.

236. Miracle like the "burning fiery furnace."

237. Miraculous birth, after eating fruit.

239. Birth-taboos upon the father.

240. River worship.—Of an evening, they make a small raft of reeds, put a lamp on it, and set it afloat on some river or canal. In the morning, flowers, scent, sweetmeats, thrown in.

243. Saharanpur: Worship of Saturn.—Many people keep in their houses a copper, or more often an iron, plate, with an image of the planet drawn on it, and worship it on Saturdays, with an offering of red lead and oil.

Anthropology.

2. Sikh Initiation. Part of it is to drink water, formerly that in which a Sikh's feet had been washed; the next stage was to use