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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(DECEMBER, 1881.
was intended to represent the earth-spirit supposed to be dwelling in the ground there who was thus worshipped, and formally requested to leave the spot. Without this ceremony, per formed before any earth had been dug up, it was believed there would be no luck about the honse. I do not know what claas of gods or spiri.. this earth-spirit could be referred to, or wbether there is any analogy between the belief and the feng-sin idea, so potent in China, which governs the position and construction of all buildings.
VI.
temple was bailt, and Subrahmanya's image set up therein, and the place named from Siva's words! The temple, however, has a special miracle connected with it of daily occurrence. Numbers of pilgrims resort to it, specially from Madras and places still more distant, bringing with them milk in small chattis or pots sealed up. If on being offered in the temple at Palani the milk is found fresh, the votary is assured of the favour of the god and the success of any undertaking he may have in view, bat the reverse shonld the milk have turnod sour. It is asserted, however, that the milk is for the most part miraculously preserved fresh. One continually meets parties of wayfarers on the roads leading to the shrine, carrying the sealed-up pots of milk slang to a stick across their shoulders, often gaily decorated with pea. cock-feathers. Doubtless there was an under- standing between the Brahmaņs at each end of the pilgrimage,-between those who seal and those who open the pots, for it used to be whis. pered that the declaration of the Brahman who opened the châtti and tasted the milk, as to its freshness or the contrary, dependod a good deal on whether the offering made was considered satisfactory and suitable to the appearance of the votary. In the pre-railway days the freshness of the milk would be really something miraculous, the distance between the shrine and Madras being over 400 miles, about a month's journey. Now it could probably be accomplished in two or three days. I know not whether conditions bave boen altered to meet this change, or how the miracle withstands the rush of the iron horse.
V. Once in a field ontside & village in South Kannada I noticed a large square marked in lines with chunam or whitewash on the ground, with magic symbols in the corners, and the outline of a human figure rudely drawn in the middle; passing by the place again, I observed that flowers and boiled rice had been laid on leaves round the figure within the square, and was informed that a house was to be built on the site marked out, and the figure
People in England dislike, or used to dislike, starting on a journey or voyage on a Friday, but the Hindu rule is much more complicated. It is unlocky to go westward on Friday and Sunday, or eastward on Monday and Saturday, north on Tuesday and Wednesday, or south on Thursday. This rule depends, I beliove, on astrological influences. A journey begun on Tuesday is liable to result in loss by thieves or fire at home; loss too is likely to follow a journey began on Saturday, and sickness a start on Sanday. Wednesday and Friday are both propitious days, and a journey began on either with a view to business will be gainful: the worst days for travelling are Taesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Amongst bad omens for travellers are seeing lightning fall, meeting a widow or a singlo Brahman, a crow flying across from right to left, or a dog barking on a house-top. On an expedition with any special object it is good to meet a married woman bearing a metal water-pot from a tank, or any one wearing a silver armlet, or carrying musical instruments.
It is worth comparing the old Greek belief regarding lucky days as recited at length in the last 64 verses of Hesiod's Works and Days. The old bard runs over all the days of the month and the businesses proper on each, and ends with quaintly observing, "Sometimes a day is as a stepmother, sometimes as a mother ; happy and fortunate is he, and blameless before the gods, who knows all the signs and interdicts, and avoids transgressions."
MAITHILA FOLK-LORE,-VARARUCHI AS A GUESSER OF ACROSTICS.
BY GEORGE A. GRIERSON, B.C.S. Some time ago I contributed to the Indian two following tales tend to show that another Antiquary (ante, p. 89) a note on the Indian fashionable amusement, the solving of acrostics, origin of the American "Sixteen Puzzle." The was known in India at an early date. They
