Indian Antiquary Vol 16

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 73

FEBRUARY, 1887.]
ASIATIC SYMBOLISM.
Lastly, to complete the Asiatic nature of the Tarragona oloisters, on the extreme right is represented a man stabbing the dragon with long spear. The dress of this individual is of a distinctly Central Asian character.
As among indications of Eastern civilization in Spain I would draw attention to a warming apparatus in use there. The celebrated Sicilian traveller, Pietro della Valle," when writing from Persis in 1617, says—"Not only in Kurdistân, but in the whole of Persia, even in the most considerable houses, they kindled their fires in & vessel called tenndr, "- Vase of burnt clay about two palms in heighty in which they place burning coals, charcoal, or other cumbustible matter which quickly lights. After this, they place a plank over this kind of oven in the shape of a small table; this they cover entirely, spreading over it a large cloth, which extends on all sides to the ground, over & part of the floor of the chamber. By this contrivance, the heat being prevented from diffusing itself all at once, it is communicated insensibly and so pleasantly throughout the whole apartment, that it can not be better compared than to the effect of a stove. A little further on he adds—"Of the excellence of this contrivance I am so fully persuaded, that I am resolved'on adopting it when I shall return to Italy." This he very possibly did, but it has not there re- mained in its entirety. In Southern Italy the arrangement has lost its two most practical features, diz. the table and the cloth, which cause the heat to diffuse itself gradually and warm the whole room. The Italian custom in cold weather is to have a large copper vessel, having a domed cover removable at pleasure, filled with embers and placed in a ring of wood provided with four legs, and thus raised to such a height from the ground that it forms a convenient footstool. However this may be, the identical heating apparatus mentioned by Pietro delle Valle may be seen in use at Seville at the present day; only the receptacle for fire, instead of being as he describes a vase of burnt clay, is of copper or brass, fitted into
a ring of wood fixed about eight inches from the base of a table resting upon four legs. At a convenient height from the ground is a round table, which is pierced at equal distances with holes about the size of a franc, so that, when covered by a cloth (as in Persia), the heat is felt by those who are sitting at work near it. It also more effectually warms the whole apartment than the Italian vessel.
The question of the warming apparatus at present in use in Kasmir under the name of kangri has been extensively discussed in Vol. XIV. p. 264ff. and Vol. XV. p. 57 of this Journal, and, in addition to the evidence as to the origin of portable stoves there given, I would add that during the winters in Florence, which are very cold, no Florentine women of the lower classes walks abroad without carrying a scaldino, which is an exact reproduction of the káigri of Kaśmîr. 18
There is yet another point of connection between Spain and the East, to be noted before leaving this portion of my subject. The inhabitants of the provinces on both sides of the Pyrenean frontier are Basques; and therefore one is not surprised to find that certain symbols and customs have found their way over the mountains from Spain into France, and have there survived, owing to the circumstance that the peculiar language spoken by the Basque people has isolated them a good deal from their neighbours. At St. Jean de Luz, on the French side of the border, on the feast of St. John the Baptist, who is the patron saint of this town, the people get up what are called Pastorales, or representations in a versified narrative form. Their character varies, trenting sometimes of secular, and sometimes of religious subjects; the actors are invariably of the male sex; and where women's parts occur they are taken by young lads clad in female attire. The same play, if one may style it such, is carried on for some days, with intervals for rest and refreshment. Here again, in every particular, Indian customs are represented. The acting and recital of the Rámáyana last several days; and there also the
11 Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, « Pellegrino, Venetis, 1681, p. 18. ***Fors. tanntri bat it is a word of Arabic origin, with pla. tandnir.-ED.)
* [All the above is very interesting in this connection, especially as Dr. Haltzsch, ante, Vol. XV. p. 57, has shown
that the use of portable fire-places or braziers was known in India in Kasmir as early as the XIIth Century A.D., and here we have their use in Persis (and if Delle Valle's word tennor be right, in Arabis) as well as in Spain and Italy, in a manner which implies a long previous history.-ED.]