Indian Antiquary Vol 24

SR No.: 032516
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 390
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 303

293
OCTOBER, 1895.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
women to kiss the hand of the king.90 Similarly, Egyptians kiss the threshold of a sacred tomb, Arabs kiss the Ka'aba or black stone of Makka, and Tibetan Buddhists kiss the cushions on which the Tashi Lâma has been seated.90a In the new synagogue at Prague (1885) a Jew guide, who had by accident touched a sacred scroll, kissed the hand that touched the scroll, the object apparently being to take into himself in a proper reverential manner any share of the scroll influence, which through contact had in an irregular way passed into his hand. So to suck virtue out of the box the Beni-Isra'il of Kôlaba, in entering or leaving his house, as he passes the box which holds the sacred text, touches the box with his first two right fingers and then kisses them. The kissing of a king, of a child, or of other object of worship, is not only that the guardian spirit of the kissed should pass into the kisser. The object in many cases is that the kisser should by kissing take ill-lack from the kissed. So the Druses of Mount Lebanon kiss the hands, face and beard of the dead chief.82 A variety of this idea appears in the practice which is as old as Job, of kissing the hand to the New Moon, or, with Sir Thomas Browne, to Fortune; 93 in the Peru linbit of kissing the air in adoration of the collective divinities; 94 in the practice of the priests of Aesculapius in Italy (A. D. 140) saluting the god by raising and kissing the circle of the thumb and first right finger tip.95
In Bombay, when Sayyids come out of a mosque after evening prayer, a group of boys may be seen near the mosque gate. Each boy holds in his arms a sick child of one or two years, and in his hand a copper-pot filled with water. Each Sayyid, when he comes out of the mosque, turns to the boys, and, repeating holy verses from the Kurán, lays his right hand on the sick child's head, and then gives the back of his right hand to the sick child to kiss. At the same time from his mouth, purified by the holy words of the Kurán, he breathes on the water in the boy's copper-pot. The kissing of the Sayyid's sacred hand scares the evil spirit which is making the child sick, and the drinking of the water, purified by the inbreathed spirit of the Kurán prevents the return of the evil spirit.88 That in certain cases the object of the kiss is to suck out evil spirits is illustrated by the practice among the Brahmans of Southern India of the chief mourner kissing the mouth, nose and other openings of the corpse before the pyre is lighted.87 Also by the Tibetan exorcist drawing out disease-demons by sucking a hollow arrow set on the suffering part.87a
Worshippers at Jêjuri, in the Bombay Dekhan, before entering the temple, kiss Khandoba's horse, whose virtue scares from them all hovering evils, before they draw near the god. The Beni-Isra'il mother, on the fifth day after child-birth, holds her ears and kisses a lamp three to five times, the spirit of light in the lamp driving out the spirits of darkness which have lodged in her during her time of peril and uncleanness.99 In Makka, the virtue-taking inferior kisses the hand of the superior, and the virtue-giving superior kisses the inferior's brow. Equals, sharing in one spirit, kiss hands.90 At the enthroning of a Persian king all present kiss his feet. The Jews kissed the feet and the knees of their crowned king.92 Compare the kiss-worn bronze toe of St. Peter in Rome which men and women kiss, laying their brow on the toe and curtseying.93 The Jews kissed the calves they worshipped. The great toe of the statne of Jagannath Sankarsêts in Bombay, is white with kissing. Compare Leo the Isaurian (A. D. 726) ordering images to be set higher, that no one might kiss them.95 At a great fire at Antioch the Bishop gave the cross to the people to kiss that it might be their viaticum to the next world," On Good Friday, the Pontiff adores and kisses the cross. The clergy and the people follow."7 In the Early Greek Church, on Christmas Day, the Emperor kisses the picture of the Nativity.98 The early Christians kissed the doors, threshold and pillars of the church. A boy was cured 81 Kolaba Gazetteer, p. 86. 2 Ency. Brit. Article "Druses." 83 Religio Medici, Sect. 17 (1649). 84 Clodd's Myths asd Dreams, p. 43. 85 Pater's Marius the Epicurean, Vol. I. p. 40. BG Information from Mr. Sayad Daud. 87 Dubois, Vol. II. p. 207. 87 Waddell's Busm in Tebet, p. 483. 88 Jour. R. A. Soc. Vol. VII. p. 107. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol XVIII. Part I. p. 527. 9 Burkhardt's Arabia, Vol. I. p. 369. 91 Jones' Crowns, p. 2 Op. cit. p. 328; Josephus' Antiquities, Vol. VI. p. 4. 93 From MS. note.
30 Notes and Queries, Vol. II. p. 438. 80 Waell's Buddhism in Tibet, p. 320.
430.
Hosea, Chap. xiii., v. 2. "Op. cit. p. 500.
95 Smith's Christian Antiquities, p. 818. Op. cit. p. 809. Op. cit. pp. 365, 903.
7 Op. cit. p. 739.