Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/48

32 bathes and offers prayers to the Manes. After the last phase of the eclipse he bathes again, offers certain prayers and returns home. During the course of the eclipse he stays by the side of a river or on the sea-shore. River-baths and sea-baths are performed on this occasion to propitiate the Manes. Some devout Hindus go on a pilgrimage to Rameswaram or Benares to plunge themselves in the waters of the ocean or the Ganges during the eclipse.

The eclipse must take place on some asterism or other, and if that asterism happens to be that in which any Hindu was born, he has to perform some special ceremonies to absolve himself from impending evil. Every Hindu who was born in the asterism in which the eclipse takes place considers it as foreboding some calamity for him in that year. He makes a plate of gold or silver or of palm-leaf, according to his means, and ties it on his forehead, with Sanskrit verses inscribed over it. He sits with this plate for some time, performs certain ceremonies, bathes with the plate untied and presents it to a Brahman with some fee, ranging from four annas to several thousands of ‘rupees, according to his means. Maha-