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SEPTEMBER, 1882.] THE COSMOGONIO HYMN, RIG-VEDA X, 129.
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night it is said to assume the face and figure of and towns, but he cannot lift the least fraga friend, a father, brother, or relative, and wakenment of a mill-stone, as if he does his fingers the sleepers by shaking them on the shoulder, will be pinched. saying, "Brother, give me your kangri." If it The Yech's cap also renders the wearer inis given by the unsuspicious, the Yech upsets all visible. Five out of the six men from whom the burning coals over the victim, burning him I first heard of this demon had seen Yechs, dangerously. The proper thing to do is to say and its existence is evidently an undoubted “Yes, brother, yes," and then in giving the fact to nine out of every ten people in the kangrill to upset the coals over the Yech, who Kashmir Valley." will fly, shrieking out curses and abuse. It The people are not much afraid of the Yech, has a marvellous vocabulary of strange oaths. and seem to think that it and its tricks are too
The Yech cannot cross running water, and well known to be dangerous, and that any one when pursued by one a man is safe if he can taken in by a Yech rather deserves his fate step across & stream."
than otherwise for his gross ignorance." The white cap which the Yech wears is shell- At Sopûr I met a man whose great-grandshaped, and is endowed with magical powers. If father, a mullah, had possession of a Yech's a man is brave enough to snatch one from a cap. He ordered all the gold, jewellery," etc., he Yech's head, he becomes the man's faithful wanted on a liberal scale, and then, having as servant as long as the cap is in the man's posses- he thought, enough for himself and his heirs for sion, but the only place where it can be kept ever, in a moment of mistaken generosity he safely is under a mill-stone, or a fragment returned the cap to the Yech, when all his of a mill-stone. By hook or crook the Yech treasure disappoared. The result is that the will recover it if placed elsewhere. The Yech Mullah's great-grandson trotted after my pony is immensely powerful, and at his human for 12 miles, and was rendered immensely pleased master's bidding will move whole mountains' by two annas "bakhshish."29
THE COSMOGONIC HYMN, RIG-VEDA X, 129.
BY PROF. W. D. WHITNEY, OF NEW HAVEN.
(Extracted from the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society. The prevailing belief of the Hindus of the Vedic generally accepted theory of the creation, and, in period as to the origin of the world is that it was the absence of asupreme divinity in their Pantheon, made by the gods. They have no detailed and and the lack of consistent system among their
16 Kangrt, a small earthenware pot of peculiar make, dian of Kuvêra's treasures. In Kångra the Yeksh car often covered with wicker work, used for Warming the make money to disappear.-R. C. T. stomach in the Himalayan districts. It is filled with live * In Kangra and apparently also in Kashmir there is a charcoal and then placed in front of the stomach under demon called Mahanyekah (Máyech) or Great-Yech, which the clothes for warmth. It gets its name from Kengre, is more powerful than a Yech, and can bring at pleasure the district where it is mostly manufactured. The immediately costly and valued things from distance. best are made at Kangrå itself and in Nurpur,-once an especially delicacies, as green cloves, cocoanuts, etc. important place in the district. The facts on which the In Kashmir near Kärkarpur is a celebrated temple calle i superstition in the text is based are usually these. The Plyech, which has probably some connection with the people frequently go to sleep with the kangri on, and in Yakshas of classical times, The Mahånyeksh seems now to turning in their sleep upset it, and are in conseqence be confounded with the Yekshini, who is a dreaded demon, severely burnt, this burning with their usual simplicity and represents most probably the attendants on Durga, they put down to the Yech.-R. C. T.
the terrible: Yakshini was however the name of Kuvera's 11 In the Panjab the Yeksh is confined to certain limite
wife. In KÅngrå there is yet another demon Sindhubft. by the large rivers, as the Jamna, the Satlaj, and so on,
with like powers to the Yeksh, to whom all kinds of perbut not by the small streams. Thus if a man is made ill
sonal injuries are attributed. He has the power of by a Yeksh in the Bari Do&b, he will be saved by crossing
removing women to a distance: the wanton ones somethe R4vf or the Biys.-R.C.T.
times take advantage of this, and after some escapade 15 The Kängrå belief is similar, but no one has ever been
will assert that Sindhubir took them away into the
jangals. Sindhubir seems to have no direct classical origin, known to get the cap.-R.C.T.
but his name Sindhu-vira would mean river-warrior or 1. In the Kingra Valley every tract, cave, stream, or river-demon, and he now probably represents the opic vale has its special demon of the Yech doscription to
conception of Varuna who then bank to the level of a whom everything mischievous or unfortunate is attri
Någa or Asura. Another derivation and the native one buted. This has given rise to & race of professional
for him is Sindubir or Sindhubir, the Whistling Demon. exorcista culled chelas (lit. pupils), who affect a kind of In the Hill dialect Sind or Sindh-Hindi sint or ethi, & frenzy, beating themselves with chains called sanguls
whistle. He is said to be known by the peculiar whis( Hind sangkal, a chain, fetter).-R.C.T.
tling noise he makes, but his cult seems to be confined to This evidently refers back to the classical notion of the K Angrå Hills and is not known in the Panjab generally. the Yaksha being a humorous and harmless sprite, see It is to be noted here that the Kashmir Musalman believes note 1.-R.C.T.
in his Hindu neighbour's superstitions just as the * The reference here is to the Yakshas being the guar- Punjabi Musalman doos.-R. C. T.
