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 303

NOVEMBER, 1897.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
297
shouting - Art thou one who was married or frightened?' If the answer is, Married,' the friends despair of curing the person affected. If the reply is, Frightened,' they console him and assuage his fear, and be often recovers." As regards the Jins, Wahhab, son of Munabbih, the son of Ishak, has written that God created the Jin out of smokeless fire, and made him a wife out of the Jin's own body, as God created Hawwa (Eve) out of Adam's rib. His wife bore Jin thirty-one eggs. The first lodger to crack his shell was Kutrub the male Ghůl as well as the kitten-shaped female Ghûl or Kutrubah. One of the next eggs to crack shewed Iblis, whose home is Mesopotamia. Other eggs gave forth other classes of spirits, the Saâlâts who live in baths and dungbills. The Hawâms or Hamânis in shape like winged serpents, and the Hawâtif
wandering formless voice, airy tongues that syllable men's names in sands and wastes and desert wildernesses. Indian Musalmans believe that a hundred-years old cobra developes a tumid knot, at its tail and every century adds a knot. A cobra with six knots becomes a Nas-nâs and gains the power of assuming any shape. A prince married a Nas-nas whom he met on his way from hunting in the form of a beautiful woman in deep distress. His married life weakened the prince till at last he could hardly walk. One night he awoke and saw the lamp at the end of the room flamy. As be conld hardly walk he asked his bride to trim the lamp. She stretched an arm that lengthened down the room and put right the lamp. The prince told his father that his bride was a witch. The father called his soothsayers, and the Nas-nâs was burned alive, abusing the idiotey and the ingratitude of mankind. The Muslims of Egypt hold that the Afrit and the Mârid are the most powerful and malicious of spirits.26
The Burmans have good spirits and bad spirits, as the butterfly soul and the true soul. They have guardian nàts or house-spirits, twelve in number, six male and six female.27 The Barmans believe that some nats have regular houses or abodes; and that others live away from houses and villages.28 Some spirits live in tree-tops, as the Akakasohs; some in tree-trunks, as the Shakkasohs; some in roots, as the Boomasohs. The presence of spirits in trees can be known by the quivering and trembling of the leaves when other leaves are still.2 The ranks of Burman spirits are recruited from men who die a violent death, or who have been executed for bad deeds.30 Burmah is supposed to be plagued with bilús, creatures in human guise who devour men.31 The Burmans wash the head once a month. The Pegu people believe that frequent washing destroys and irritates the genius who dwells in the head, and protects man,32 For the comfort of the house-spirits the tops of all the posts in the house are covered with a hood of cotton cloth wherein the spirits live. The house-spirit Eling-Soung Nàt lives in a cotton night-cap or hood on the top of a pillar.34 The spirit Moung Inn Gyee was feared all round Rangoon as far as Pegu. He is said to live in water and to cause death. A yearly festival is held in his honour.35 At the boat races the Burmans offer plantains to the water-spirits.36 The Burmans have so great a fear of water-spirits that they dare not rescue a victim from drowning. The Buddhist Burmans, who never kill even an insect, will stand by and Bee a man drown without helping him.87 The Chinese have an extreme fear of spirita,38 The Chinese refrain from saving a drowning man, because it is a spirit that drags him down. A similar idea used to be prevalent in England and Scotland. The Chinese believe that their waters are full of angry spirits anxious to drown men. To prevent this they put up pillars on the bank to Fat-Pee, the coming Buddha; and offer white horses.co In China, women who commit suicide, children who die in infancy, unmarried women, and beggars who die at street corners become spirits.
26 Arabian Life in the Middle Ager, p. 224. 2* Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 284. > Op.cit. Vol. I. p. 286. 22 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 92. * Op. cit. Vol. L p. 281. * Op.cit. Vol. IL p. 59. *Mrs. Gray's Fourteen Months in Canton, p. 42. • Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 35.
11 Shway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. I. p. 280. >> Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 286.
Op. cit, Vol. II. p. 100. 53 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 281. * Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 285. 17 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 151.
Gray's China, Vol. II, p. 84. 61 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 18.