Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (IA journalofstraits8386roya).pdf/130

 common in ancient India:—Satapatha, Br. VI, 1, 1, 2, etc.; the Mantrapatha (Anecdota Oxoniensia) Oxford 1897, p. 29. The Snataka or young Brahman, who had concluded his study of the Vedas and taken vows, had to observe many such tabus:—he must say bhagala for kapala "head," manidhanus for indradhanus "rainbow," dhenubharya "a cow which will become a milch-cow," instead of adhenu "a cow which gives no milk" (Gautama Dharmasastra IX. 19-22; Apast. Dharmas. I, 31, 11; 12; 15; 16;— "The Sacred Laws of the Aryas" Part I, pages 216-224, 92-98, Oxford; Baudh. Dh. II, 6, 11, 18; Vasistha Dh. XII, 32).

Winternitz finds parallels for the figurative language of Malay betrothal verses (Skeat pages 364 and 634), where the girl is ealled a calf, in the language of the Ests where the wooer pretends to search for a lost calf (L. v. Schroeder, Hochzeitsbrauche der Esten, Berlin 1888, page 36); of the Finns where the wooer pretends he wishes to buy a bird: of the Sardinians, where the wooer asks for a white dove or a white calf.

The mimic combat for the person of a Malay bride (Skeat, page 381) is widespread, of course, even in Europe: it was practised in ancient India (Winternitz: Altindisches Hochzeitsrituell, page 68). The throwing of rice over the head of the bridegroom (Skeat, page 382) is commonly observed by all Indo-Germanic peoples. Confarreatio forms part of a Malay wedding as of marriages among so many races: it was a ceremony known in ancient India (Winternitz, op. cit., page 79). Malay bride and groom are princes for the wedding-day (Skeat, page 388). In Kashmir the bridegroom is entitled for the day Maharaja—cf. A. Stein's Rajatarangini I, page 131. In the Ramayana "a marriage-crown" is mentioned:—Growse's "Ramayana " Book I, page 182 (Allahabad 1877). In Modern Bengal the poorest bridegroom wears a tinsel erown (Lal Bebari Day, Bengal Peasant Life" 1884, page 88)— A similar custom obtains in Russia, Scandinavia and parts of Germany.

Winternitz notes that Malay animistic beliefs concerning trees and plants are derived neither from Islam nor from Brahamanism.

There are other customs and beliefs which the reviewer might have noted, had he found space. The belief in the need for human sacrifice at the founding of a building is common to East and West:—Skeat, page 141; Crooke's "Introduction to Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India" page 237 and Index; Robertson Smith's "Religion of the Semites" page 158; Greek modern folk-songs (Passow Carm. Pop. Gr. 512, and "Folklore " 1899). The Malay notion of a mousedeer in the moon (Skeat, page 13) must be derived from the "hare" in the moon common in Indian folk-lore and found in the Sanskrit epithets sasin, marganku, harinanka "having the mark of a deer." The Brahman held the work of a police officer to be degrading:—Gautama,