Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 13

JANUARY, 1897.] SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
children accompanied a maiden's funeral dressed in white-paper gloves and with long whitepaper ribbons.26 According to Irving, ribbons formed part of the old-fashioned funeral garland;27
"A garland shall be framed by art and nature's skill Of sundry coloured flowers in token of good-will, And sundry coloured ribbons on it I will bestow,
But chiefly black and yellow with her to grave shall go."
In Yorkshire (1793), the bride and bridegroom were covered with ribbons of any colour but green.28 Ribbons are tied to the cart with the bride's luggage in Sunderland. In Yorkshire, a wedding should be wound up by a race for a ribbon. The winner gets a kiss and the rest a drink.30 In the sixteenth century the English May Poles were decked with ribbons.31 In seventeenth-century England, ribbons or filletings were worn by women both at weddings and at churchings. So Herrick, on Julia's churching
"Put on thy holy filletings and so To the temple with the sober go."
"32
And when the bride is brought into her husband's house
"You that be of nearest kin,
Now on the threshold force her in, But to avert the worst let her Her fillets first knit to the posts."33
On Shrove Tuesday (A. D. 1640) the boy whose cock won in the cock-fight went in triumph through the streets decked with ribbons, the others following with drum and fiddle. The Morris Dancers in Dean Forest (1822) had their bodices and hats covered with ribbons of all colours,35 Among the farmers of Herefordshire (1819) the winner of a law suit attends church with ribbons in his cap.36 In Rutland (1872), an unmarried girl can be cured of bleeding at the nose by wearing a red ribbon round her neck.37
Salt. - Salt as the origin of wholesomeness, the scarer of corruption, the keeper of freshness, the giver of appetite, the saver from sickness, is, in early stages of belief, one of the most widely worshipped of guardians. In later stages salt maintains its worshipfulness as a type of life and of wit and as the fiend-feared emblem of immortality.
9
In Gujarat, the luckiest of all purchases on the Kartik (November) new year's day is salt. A gift of salt to Brahmaus lightens to the giver the pains of death. Salt is used in all spiritscaring rites, and on the dark 14th of Asô (October) high-caste Hindu women spill little piles of salt and husked rice at cross-roads. 38 Among Gujarat Hindus the Evil Eye is removed by waving a pinch of salt and mustard seed round the child's head and throwing it into the fire. 39 The Prophet Muhammad said, "Blessed is the dinner cloth on which is salt." The Gujarat Musalman follows this rule, and during Ramazân, or at feasts, spills salt on his dinner cloth.40 In the North-West Provinces, to the west of the Jamnâ, when the cotton begins to burst, women go into the fields, sprinkle salt as a lustration, and pray for plenty. In Kathiawar, 2 frequent application of salt-earth and avala leaves is believed to cure a contraction of the joints.43 Gujarat Kanbis wave a copper-pot with salt over the bridegroom's head,
26 Gentleman's Magazine Library," Manners and Customs," p. 38. 25 Gentleman's Magazine Library, "Manners and Customs," p. 61. 31 Hone's Every-Day Book, Vol. I. pp. 550-55.
5 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 57.
25 Gentleman's Magazine Library, "Manners and Customs," p. 34.
36 Gentleman's Magazine Library, "Manners and Customs," p. 18.
57 Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, Vol. V. p. 88.
28 Vaikunthrâm's Element Worship, "Gujarat Hindu Religion."
40 Mr. Fazl Lutfullah Faridi,
42 Emblica officinalis.
27 sketch Book, Vol. I. p. 252.
29 Op. cit. p. 40. 30 Op. cit. p. 41. Poems (1869 Edn.), Vol. II. p. 307.
34 Aubrey's Remains of Gentilism, p. 41.
59 Vaikunthrâm's Element Worship.
1 Elliot's Races, Vol. I. p. 254.
63 Information from Mr. Himatlál.