Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/488

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. DEC. ie, 1911.

words may be thus translated, * Let us hear what is good with the ears, let us see what is good with the eyes.' A similar operation was performed on the left ear, except that three perforations were made and a different Mantra from the Rig-veda (vi. 75. 3) recited. The text may be thus translated : * This bowstring drawn tight upon the bow and leading to success in battle, repeatedly approaches the ear, as if embracing its friend and wishing to say something agreeable, just as a woman makes a murmuring sound (in her husband's ear).' The only apparent reason for reciting this Mantra at the Karnavedha Sanskara is that the word Kama occurs in it."

In Southern India the ears are pierced at a very early age, and in some places it is customary for the mother to amputate a joint of one of her fingers as a votive offering to the gods on the same occasion. It is not customary to bore a boy's nostril except when an elder son has died in infancy, when the new-born boy has a ring inserted in his nose, in the hope that the malignant powers, mistaking him for a girl, may pass him over.

In Burmah " ear-boring " is a great cere- mony, especially in the case of girls, but one apparently more of a social than of a reli- gious character, being accompanied by much domestic festivity. An interesting account will be found in Mrs. Forsyth's book 'Among Pagodas and Fair Ladies.'

There is so little literature on the subject that I have not been able to obtain par- ticulars respecting ear-piercing in other countries where it is prevalent, but pro- bably more or less of a religious character attaches to the rite in most places where it is practised with boys. I remember reading in the ' Life of Lafcadio Hearn ' that he and his brothers all wore gold rings in their ears in boyhood, a custom which was associated in idea with the three Divine Persons, a third wound being made over the boy's heart. Perhaps some reader could throw further light on this subject.

Ear-piercing seems to have been in vogue during the last century at more than one English public school, but probably it would be assuming too much to see any connexion between this form of the practice and the rites which we have been considering. At the same time, so many curious customs are found amongst schoolboys that the fact may be just worth mentioning.

These very fragmentary notes do not, of course, furnish sufficient matter on which to found a theory explanatory of the sym- bolism attaching to the rite of ear-piercing, but the idea naturally suggests itself that in some cases a connexion may exist between this custom and the ancient notion which associates the external ear in a peculiar way with the amative faculties. Toying

with, kissing, and playfully biting the ears of the beloved were well-known expressions of amour in the ancient world, and it is difficult to avoid the inference that the jewel which the Athenian boys are said to have worn in the right ear was of erotic signifi- cance. In any case, the custom appears to be deserving of closer attention than it has yet received from anthropologists and' students of folk-lore. E. H. C.

HAMPSHIRE : ITS FORMATION.

IT has been shown in ' N. & Q.' (11 S. ii. 212) that the totals of the county hidages recorded in Domesday Book agree very closely with the hidage for Mercia and Wessex given in the ' Tribal Hidage ' ; further, that the gross totals may be divided into parallel groups exhibiting a like correspondence. Such grouping must be tentative at first, but may in time lead to the identification of all or most of those unknown tribal districts which are the difficulty of the list.

Hampshire provides an opportunity for testing the parallel suggested. It was already a well-defined district in 755 (' A.-S. Chron.'), though the name, of course, may not be so early. Further, we have Bede's statement that Wight had 1,200 hides about 660. This would be an excessive number for the island alone, although Bede appears to have understood it so,* but may easily be accepted if the Jutish settlements on the mainland be included. The limits of these are fairly clear, as indicated in Mr. R. A. Smith's article in the ' Victoria History of Hampshire ' (i. 373n.), being formed by a line E.S.E. from King's Somborne to Chi- chester, with the addition of the Meon Valley. For the Domesday Survey Mr. J. H. Round's articles in the ' Victoria History ' have been used in the following attempt.

The hundred divisions existing in 1086 cannot be regarded as primitive, especially in the centre of the county, but taking them as they stand we obtain the following results, omitting fractions : Isle of Wight, 200 hides ; New Forest, 258 ; Southampton district,

26,000 acres ; on the same liberal scale Wight, with 93,000 acres, might have had over 1,000 hides. It is interesting to note that Kent and Surrey together have 1,480,000 acres, which number is reduced to- 1,300,000 if about one -eighth is allowed for the former excessive amount of woodland and heath in those counties. On the scale of Thanet they-could then contain the 15,000 hides assigned to Kent in. the ' Tribal Hidage.'
 * Bede gives 300 hides to Thanet, which has