Indian Antiquary Vol 20

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

Page 57

JANUARY, 1891.)
BOOK NOTICE.
49
private, of feeding and cooking alone. This last turned against them by man. Hence the coin custom is in common use among Hinduis of the men use of iron charms to ward off evil spirita; present day. The veiling of men, when royal or and the numerous and universal charms used at undergoing ceremonies, is also due to a fear of deaths under the impression that spirits are substances entering the body and injuring the wounded by sharp instruments, many of which soul within. The confinement of the king to are specially aimed at preventing the wounding of his palace or abode is another instance of the fear the soul after departure. of the baneful influence of strangers and strange
Blood, and its concomitant raw flesh, are substances, and was to be seen in Burma until
also almost universally tabued, being both a few years ago in the custom of sticking up
dangerous to consume und in the case of royalties xalithàts, or lattices, along the streets, behind
and priests dangerous to shed. The Siainese, the which the people hid until the king had passed.
Mongols, the Tâtârs, and the Malagasis will not In the more thoroughly Burman portions of
shed the blood of royal or noble personages. The Mandalay the streets were deserted and the people
late King of Burma's relatives in 1878 were almost entirely hidden behind zalíthats of volun.
slaughtered by being beaten across the throat tary construction when the Duke of Clarence and
with a bamboo for the same reason The objec. Avondale passed along them in 1889, because it
tion to shedding blood is frequently extended was known that he was heir to the English throne.
to spilling it, even in the case of animals slaughIt will be seen, therefore, that food may essily
tered for food. The reason of the superstition is injure the soul, and that care must be exercised
explained by the belief, shared alike by the as to what is eaten and from whose hand. It is
Romans, Arabs, Esthonians, North American hardly necessary to give instances of this to Indians and Papuans, that blood contains the Indian readers, but it may be as well to point out soul. The belief has been widely extended to that tabu as applied to the food and even the the red Juice of plants, especially seen in the belongings of royalty in New Zealand among the notion that wine 18 the blood of the vine Maoris is infinitely stronger than among the most and must be therefore eschewed. The Azteus exclusive Brahmaņs.
punished any one who insulted a drunken man, and The remains of food after eating may injure inspiration is frequently sought by drinking because an enemy may get hold of them and make blood. In both cases the idea is that a foreign them, by magic, grow inside the eater and kill soul has entered the drinker by means of blood. him. Hence the burying of the remains of food
The blood of tabued persons is especially after a meal in many places, and the terror inspired
dangerous, notably of women, hence the danger of by the accidental devouring of the food left by seeing blood, believed in very widely throughout the magic-working man.god, giving rise to such
the world, and also the curious custom of fearing customs as the daily breaking of the dishes of
to dwell or pass under another person, in case the Mikado.
his, or worse her, blood should fall and injure. Thus also arises tho tabuod person : the living The Flamen Dialis could not pass under a trellised divinity whose every belonging is dangerous vine, as it was a bleeding plant. In Burma and to the common herd, or he whose condition, all over Further India no man will dwell under i e. uncleanness, is a danger. Hence the dread another it he can help it. Keeping the head of the tabu of a Maori chief in New Zealand, and high, and, conversely, lowering the head be. the avoidance of persons who are ceremonially low that of a high personage, so puzzling to unclean, as menstruating women, persons who newly arrived Europeans in Burma and kindred handle the dead, and so on
countries, is explainable partly in this way, and From dangerous persons and their belongings we
partly by the belief expressed by the Karens and come to especially dangerous things. As regards
Siamese that the head contains the soul. In kings and priests and at times of ceremonies, iron
Polynesia the head is so sacred that it may not be is all over the world a tabued object. This may
touched, and elsewhere also even the owner of be a survival of the superstitious dread of all things
the head cannot touch it under certain circumnew, as in the case of Speke and his tin boxes, for stances ! when bad harvests followed on the introduction The sanctity of the head has passed into of iron ploughshares into Poland they were attri. the hair and even into the nails, which all the buted to the iron in the ploughshares, which were world over it has been either dangerous to cut, thereupon discarded. But it also clearly arises as amongst the Sikhs, or which may be cut from the notion that iron is obnoxious to the with ceremonies and precautions only. Henco gods as furnishing weapons that may be also the many customs connected with depositing