Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/219

 ii s. xii. SEPT. 11, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and one curious belief is that a person who is to die within six months cannot see the Pole star. As with us, streams and sheets of water are supposed to be inhabited by water - spirits, and the following story is told in relation to a very sacred pond near Khopoli : " The villagers say that the water-nymphs in the pond used to provide pots for marriage festivities if a written application were made to them a day previous to the wedding. The pots were, however, to be returned within a limited time. But one man having failed to comply with this condition, they have ceased to lend pots." Tales relating to spirits, fairies, and goblins taking offence at similar breaches of etiquette are found in many Western countries.

The conviction that the rainfall may be influenced by rites in which a naked human being plays the principal part still lingers in Europe. In India, apparently, this idea has not yet entered on the stage of decay. German stories tell of naked girls following out certain observances on the eve of a suitable saint's day to induce the spirits of their future husbands to appear and throw them the chemises they have discarded, while Indian women desirous of a son perform a certain rite at night without clothing.

The use of red -hot iron at Mehde to brand the affected part [of diseased cattle may be com- pared with the application of the keys of St. Hubert, formerly, if not now, popular in the Ardennes to cure canine madness, and with the use of water in which hot iron has been quenched to heal running sores and skin diseases in Eng- land. At Kolhapur the treatment for swollen glands closely resembles an English wart-cure.

It is specially interesting to learn that, like certain uncanny beings of Africa and Europe, ghosts and evil spirits have their feet (and even hands) turned backwards. At Naringre in the Devgad taluka it is thought that spirits are cruel by nature and that they have no shadow. This latter idea calls to mind several stories familiar in Europe ; moreover, our headless ghosts have representatives in India too. At Shirgaon in the Mahim taluka it is asserted that the spirit Hirwa, which troubles human beings and animals, goes about headless. A Shut known as Peesa is also believed to be headless by the people of Dahigaon in the Murbad taluka.

Hindus generally believe in the effects of the evil eye, which may sometimes be acquired from the influence of evil stars. Animals, and even ghosts, may also possess it. Its effects are many : a good image may be disfigured or broken, and even stones are shattered by it. One remedy against it is a red-hot bar cooled in water mixed with turmeric powder, and a more elaborate rc"ipe includes five pieces of broken tile made ro<l hot ; but the people of Khopoli in the Kolaba district believe that the evil eye can be diverted from living creatures only, and not from inanimate things.

Omens are naturally believed in also. To Silect instances, an unwidowed woman, a cow, a five-petalled flower, a peacock, a blue jay, and a iu ingoose are lucky. So are the appearance of lli- moon in front, any kind of com, curds, a lighted lamp, the sound of a musical instrument, a horse, and an elephant. Oil, buttermilk, fire- wood, a couple of snakes, ashes, cotton, red garlands, a woman wearing red cloth, an empty irthen vessel, a Brahman widow, and a lighted la -up extinguished by falling on to the ground are

among the objects and persons supposed to be- inauspicious.

Totemism prevails in Western India. The Shelar family, for instance, consider the sheep as their devak or totem, and they do not. eat the flesh of a sheep. Similarly, people belonging to the More family do not eat the flesh of a mor or peacock, as they regard it as their devak.

As might be anticipated, witchcraft is not absent from India. The witches there, like some of their Western sisters, are said to go to their unholy meetings quite naked. These meetings are held at the cremation ground outside the village. It is rather surprising to learn that a, chetakin, or witch, cannot herself appear in the form of an animal in some places at least for though East is East and West is West, this is one of the points on which it might have been expected that there would have been perfect agreement. On the whole, this Konkan folk-lore shows that the mental faculties which evolved the popular beliefs and customs of India produced conceptions which might have arisen in European brains, had the environment and the history of the Eastern and Western races been similar.

Bulletin of the John Rylands Library : Jvly

to September. (Manchester, University Press ;

London, Longmans and Quaritch, Qd.) OUR readers will be glad to know that the response to the appeal on behalf of the Library of the University of Louvain, made in the previous issue of the Bulletin, has been most encouraging. Already upwards of 3,000 volumes have been received or definitely promised. A description of the gifts received to the end of June, with the names of the donors, is here supplied. An Inter- national Committee is in process of formation, with a view to co-ordinate the efforts that are being made in our own country and on the Continent,, to assist the restoration.

Among the ten free public lectures announced are three devoted to Shakespeare in commemora- tion of the Tercentenary of his death Sundav. 23 April, 1916. Mr. William Ppel will deliver the first of these on 19 April, taking as his subject a topic now being discussed in o\ir pages, ' The Globe Playhouse.' Prof. Moulton will deliver the other two : ' Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist,' and ' Shakespeare as a Dramatic Thinker/

The contents of the Bulletin include an elaborated text of Dr. Conway's lecture on ' The Youth of Vergil,' and further notes by Dr. Mingana upon some of the sixty Koranic manuscripts in the Library, among these being three volumes written in letters of gold.

Since the previous Bulletin was issued a large number of manuscripts and books have been acquired by the Library, the description of the books alone occupying sixty pages. There are nearly a hundred Pali and other manuscripts on palm leaves, metallic lacquer, or paper. These were obtained through the instrumentality of Prof. Rhys Davids, and are the fruits of thirty years' assiduous collecting. Of Syriac manuscripts there are thirty, consisting of Biblical, patristic, and liturgical works acquired through the generous help of Dr. Rendel Harris. Of Western or Latin and English manuscripts a collection of eighty volumes of records has been acquired. Noteworthy among these is a volume of the fifteenth-century Cartulary of Fountains Abbey, which has been lost sight of for some time,.