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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
the Blessed Virgin Mary was carried to the Hill and a Chapel was built and dedicated to her. The cost of the building was defrayed by subscriptions from the Catholics of Mahim, Bombay, Bassein and Salsette."
I shall feel obliged by the publication of the above, as no doubt the legend, as already told,
THE HINDU HOME-LIFE, by KACCOO MAL MANUCHEE, Rai Bahadur. Lucknow, London Printing Press, 1890.
BOOK-NOTICES.
This little volume, invaluable to the student of Indian folklore, contains a long series of discursive notes, arranged in alphabetical order of subjects, on the religious beliefs, social customs, folklore and superstitions of the Hindus of Oudh. They are given without comment or any attempt at generalization, and so form to the anthropologist a most useful mine of information at first hand by a Hindu about Hindus.
The last half of the book is taken up with proverbs and sayings on agriculture and general subjects, arranged on the plan of Dr. Fallon's Dictionary of Hindustani Proverbs, and with a quantity of those religious aphorisms which form so important a feature in the practical religion of the modern North-Indian Hindu.
This book contains just the information that European anthropologists so much need, and we hope that the author will be encouraged to give us more of his observations, and that other Native observers will hasten to follow his example. COMPARATIVE NOTES TO THE MABINOGION, by Prof. H. GAIDOZ, reprinted from Y. Cymmrodor, Vol. X. Pts. 1 and 2.
In his "Notes," No. 1, Ransom by Weight, Prof. Gaidoz has done good service in drawing attention to the spread of the well known Indian custom of tuladan, or weighing against gold or silver, now used as a superstitious prophylactic against sickness, but originally a war custom of the Aryans as a method of valuing the ransom of a prisoner or the payment to be made in consequence of a murder or death.
The custom of weighing against precious metals as a cure for sickness was known in medieval Europe, and in an attenuated form, in the shape of a staff of a measured thickness and height, was practised both as means of valuing reparation for a wrong and of procuring the birth of children. It survives still in the custom of presenting wax models of the whole or parts of the body at shrines upon recovery from sickness.
[DECEMBER, 1890.
might have made a non-Catholic impression upon your readers.
Mahim, 22-9-90.
B. L. D'SILVA. [We do not think that our correspondent, Mr. D'Penha,
meant any disrespect to the Roman Catholic religion by placing on record his very instructive version of a folktale current among the Natives in the neighbourhood of Bombay. - EDS.]
might well be increased by an enquiry into the shapes the custom has assumed in folktales. For instance, take this description from Wide Awake Stories, p.10,-"Now the king had a daughter called Princess Blossom, who was so lovely and tender and slim and fair, that she only weighed five flowers. Every morning she was weighed in golden scales, and the scales always turned when the fifth flower was put in, neither less nor more." The vernacular names for Princess Blossom are Badshahzadi Phali or Princess Flower, and Phâlâzâdî, Born-of-a-flower. Pañchphalt Rânt or Queen Five-flowers is an old favourite in Indian nurseries. In Indian Folktales, pp. 1 and 2, the heroine weighs only one flower and the same weight is given to the god Indra. Weighing against flowers is again in other folktales a test of chastity.
This favourite point in folktales assumes altogether a new interest, if it be held to be connected with the ideas that have led to the world-wide custom of tuládán.
THE MADRAS CHISTIAN COLLEGE MAGAZINE, Vol. VII.
No. 1, July 1889. Madras, Addison & Co.; London, Elliot Stock.
This number contains a lively and useful controversy between Mr. John Kuriyan and Mr. G. Milne Rae on the Indian Apostleship of St. Thomas, which brings out among other facts that among the Malabar Christians the " title-deeds of the new churches record the fact that the properties were conveyed to St. Thomas personally (Mar Thomma slihauda manuslingattim gulakku)." These should be worth examination, to test genuineness and age.
THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH PROVIN
CIAL MUSEUM, LUCKNOW. Minutes of the Managing Committee from August 1883 to 31st March 1888, with an Introduction. Allababad, Government Press. 1889.
This is a vain-glorious chronicle of very small beer, got up in the style of a University Calendar. It contains pp. ix. and 417. The printing is expensive and good, and the contents may be of The interesting notes collected by Prof. Gaidoz use to the compiler, but hardly to any one else. 1 Bee Old Deccan Days, p. 129.
