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APRIL, 1892.)
BOOK NOTICES.
123
NOTES AND QUERIES. ECLIPSE-CUSTOMS IN MADRAS.
son has never stolen anything. If she has lied A peculiar sanctity is attributed to eclipses into her uncle, let her be convicted before the general. Among the Brabmans it is considered panchayut. Conveyour welfare. Katak bads most sacrilegious to take food during the period of panchami, St. 1934 (Oct. 1877). Witnesses to the eclipse. The food should be taken generally the good conduct of Jamni Bhaubhuji's son: fully eight hours before the first contact, and at Thákursi Patel, Baldévê Patel, Dungarsi Patel, first contact everybody, including children, should Bhagwana Patel. Signed by Channa Patwari: the bathe. A bath in the sea or a river is considered above statement of Jamna Bhaạbhoji is correct." the most efficacions. Previous to bathing, the
Noxt comes a small scrap of paper giving the family priest generally goes through certain rites
name of eighteen persons, all Hindus, who owed with a view to washing away all the sins of the
the writer Rs. 40-4-0 between them, in sums vary. party. After the bath, alms are freely distributed
ing from 12 annas to Rs. 5. to the poor, and when the last contact is over, or after the clearance of the eclipse, there is a second
Lastly is a short daily " account of expenditure bath, and then the worshippers may take their
with one Ali Bakhsh from Asauj (Sept.) nudi food.
13mí, St. 1934 (1877)." It is in five columns,
headed respectively flour (á), pulse (del), ghi A peculiar feature in eclipse customs is, that
molasses (gu) and tobacco, with an occasional when the eclipse falls on a day, the presiding
note of cash borrowed, and extends from Arauj nakshatra of which is the same as that of a
sudi 13mi to Katak badí 8mí, or 11 days. person's horoscope, there is fear of its having an evil influence on his futurity. To ward off this
On Asauj sudi 13mí the owner must have laid the priest has to perform counteracting cere
in a stock, for we find him proeuring :- tita, 10 monies, and to distribute alms freely to the poor,
sérs: del, 1 sér : ghí, 1 sér : gur, 1 xer: tam.ikhů, or break a few of both ash-coloured and white
6 pdf : paisd, 3 pií. He bought his útii, dil, and gourds. The person influenced for evil as above
ghi regularly every day thereafter, and his gur is also advised to tio round his forehead a small
and tobacco occasionally only. Money he seems palmyra leaf, on which are written a few Sanskrit
to have borrowed in very small quantities. He verses, in expiation of his or her sins, as the case bought his id alternately 1 ner 8 chitiks, and 12 may be.
chitáks : his del nearly always 6 chituks: and his K. SRIKANTALIYAR.
gur nearly always 3 chituks. Including his stock on Asauj sudi 13mí, he purchased altogether ata,
35 sérs, chitáks : dál, 6 sérs, 12 chitáks : ghi GLIMPSES INTO A BHIL'S LIFE.
4 sérs, 3 chitiks : gur, 2 sérs, 10 chitaks. He I once purchased a quiver, filled with arrows,
also bought 6 chituks of sugarcane. The ruling which had been in the possession of a Bhil of
rates for these articles were atd, 16 sêrs : dal, some standing. In a pocket in the quiver were
10 sérs: ghi, 3 sérs : gur, 10 sérs. His total found three documents in the vernacular, of which
expenditure was Rs. 4-14-6, including 1 anna and I now give a partial rendering. They are very
3 pies borrowed in cash, in these eleven days, of characteristic of the people to whom the owner
which nearly one-fourth was on the first day for belonged.
some reason, leaving an expenditure of Rs. 3-12-0 First came a scrap of a letter to the following in ten days, or (say) Rs. 11-4-0 in a month; effect: - "In the Jért (3) District, Jamna | wherefrom it is to be assumed that our unknown Bhanbhaji's son is charged with theft from the friend was a man of substance in his village. house of Manga Minâ. She states that so far her
R. C. TEMPLE.
BOOK-NOTICES. HANDBOOK OF TAE HAKA OR BAUNGSHE DIALECT Opteresting qualities, but solely to their persistent
THE CHIN LANGUAGE, by LIKUT. D. J. C. MACNABB, and inveterate habit of raiding. These raids B. S.C., Political Officer, Haka."
have taken place with entire impartiality, both That the wild Chins and other mountaineers against other hill-men living without the pale, on the Burman Frontier are at present receis. and against the more civilised inhabitants of the ing an especial measure of attention is due plains. As has been pointed out by Mr. McCabe to the possession by them of no peculiarly in with reference to the cognate Nagâ tribes, each
1 Rangoon, printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Burma, 1891.
