Indian Antiquary Vol 25

SR No.: 032517
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 366
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 259

SEPTEMBER, 1896.] SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
When they meet, the Masais of East Africa spit on each other.25 In North-East Africa, the traveller Johnson was much sought after as a medicine-man. His salute was so highly valued that he had to keep his mouth full of water.38 In Scotland, at the beginning of this century, it was usual to spit in the hand, before clenching a bargain by grasping the hand of the person with whom you were dealing.27 The apparent sense of the spit before the grip is to prevent any devil of crookedness finding his way into the grip, and so into the bargain. A Peruvian salute was to approach the superior, carrying green boughs and palm-leaves; 29 and a New Guinea custom is that the saluters lay leaves on the heads of those they salute.20 In A. D. 1519, the people of Kohat, in despair, came to meet Baber with grass between their teeth.30 In India, the mouthing of grass is generally accompanied by standing on one foot. The practice has been explained as an example of abject submission, as if with the sense, "We are your oxen."31 That surrender explains the mouthing of grass seems doubtful, and the ox idea is a natural case of meaning-raising. The grass seems to be taken into the mouth with the object of turning aside wrath. The root of the practice may therefore be the belief that grass scares evil, as, in the North-West Provinces, a blade of grass is stuck in a heap of corn to keep off the Evil Eye.33 Another salute, whose apparent sense is to keep the honoured safe from spirit-attacks, is lifting or raising shoulder-high. Grimm quotes a German song which moans the flight of merriment:"If we could only get her back, we would bear her on our hands as a king or a bride is raised and carried."33 Dancing, another admirable scarer, is also a salute. In India, the religiousness or luckiness of the trained dance or nách is that like the priest, the dancinggirl is the scape, and draws ill-luck into herself. In the early years of the present century, in Rajputânâ, when the chief or an honoured guest arrived, women at a country town went out to welcome them, dancing and singing. And still occasionally, in Gujarat Native States, at the entrance of a town, a dancing-girl stands and salutes a stranger. A common Roman salute was to point with one of the right fingers: to point the first or index finger was complimentary; to point the middle finger was an insult. The middle finger was known as the impudicus, that is, immodest, or the infamis, that is, disreputable. The finger was immodest because, if held out with the other fingers doubled back, its likeness to a phallus made it a valuable guard against the Evil Eye. In its case, as in other cases, the indecent was the lucky. Its tip applied the evilscaring spittle to the temples, the brow, and the lips of the infant. Still, in spite of its lackiness, to be saluted by this middle finger was an insult. The gesture meant "You are a devil, or you have a devil." On the other hand, it was an honour to be pointed at by the first finger. The Romans saluted their gods from a distance by kissing the first finger tip, and holding out the finger to the god. Certain tourists came to see Demosthenes. As they drew near, they failed to salute him by pointing to him the finger of honour or by blowing him a kiss from its tip. In return, the sage saluted the tourists by holding out his horn or priapus middle finger, apparently signifying "Ye mannerless Devils,"35
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The object of the next class of salutes, C (iii.), is, by pinching, slapping or circling, to drive evil out of the person saluted. When a Bombay Beni-Isra'il bridegroom reaches the bride's house, her brother meets him and squeezes his car, puts sugar in his mouth, and gives him a cocoanut.36 Among the Pâtâne Prabhus of Poona, a new-born babe has its head squeezed, its nose pulled, and its ears pinched.37 Among the Marwâr Vanis of Poona, a custom observed by most Gujarat castes, when the bridegroom
25 Elworthy's The Evil Eye, p. 422.
28 MS. note from Dr. Graham, 5th April, 1835.
27 Napier's Folk- Lore, p. 100.
28 Descriptive Sociology, Vol. II., "Ancient Peruvians." ro Caldecott's Baber, p. 90.
20 Hone's Table Book, p. 187.
31 Op. cit. p. 90; Elliot's Races, North-West Provinces,
Vol. I. p. 240; Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII. p. 180.
32 Elliot's Races, North-West Provinces, Vol. I. p. 239. 5 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. II. p. 891.
This practice seems to have remained in force till the seventeenth century, as Prætorius (Elworthy's The Evi Eye, p. 413) writes in A. D. 1677: Even now-a-days we teach our boys that the right index is to be kissed as a salutation to persons worthy of honour."
35 Laertius in Elworthy's The Evil Eye, p. 414.
36 MS. note. ST Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 220.