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SEPTEMBER, 1892.]
BOOK-NOTICE.
279
4. Never look at the fox.or jackal in the morning, but note the proverb: - "Did you wake this morning with a fox in your face P”
N. SANKUNNI WARIYAR.
Some of the Brahmans believe that if a person sees this bird flying in the sky on a Sunday morning, at any time before breakfast, he will attain fulfilment of all his enterprises during the ensuing week.
Among the lower castes of the Hindus the ceremonies have a different aspect. Their prieste buy a small quantity of flesh from the basdr and bring it home. With this they make it & point to feed the bird, and wait outside their houses for it to fly over them. When they see one they throw up bits of the meat, inviting the bird to take them. When the bits are all taken they pay obeisance to the bird and take leave. After this they bathe and take their meals, considering themselves to have received the benediction of Vishnu.
K. SRIKANTALIYAR.
MALABAR COAST.
Lucky Actions. 1. Always throw the outer rind of the arecanut into the street, so that people walk over it.
2. Turn to the right when getting up in the morning from your bed.
N. SANKUNNI WARIYAR.
MALABAR COAST.
Unlucky Actions. 1. Never let anyone tread on the nails of your fingers or toes, lost be become your enemy.
2. Never pour water into a chunam pouch at night.
3. Never take off the inner coating of the areca-nut at night.
SPIRIT HAUNTS IN MADRAS. Hvil spirits seek always for their abode that portion of a tank or a river where someone has been drowned and lost his life, or the following trees :
1. Ficus Religiosa, pipal, (Arasu in Tamil); 2. Asadirachta Indica, Nim. (Vombu in Tamil); 3. Tamarind (Puliyam in Tamil),
Hence virgins, or pregnant women, and children, are usually warned not to approach these places at any time during the day or night.
K. SRIKANTALIYAR. Ootacamund.
BOOK-NOTICE.
JOURNAL OF THE MAHA-BODHI BOCIETY. Edited by
H. DHARMAPALA, Caloutta, May 1892.No 1. Baptiat Mission Press, for the Buddha Gaya Mababodhi Society. The Buddha-Gaya Mahabodhi Society, or the Bud-Gayal Society, for it is a little difficult to make out its title clearly from the publication before us was, we find, established at Colombo on May 31st, 1891, under the auspices of Colonel H. S. Olcott. This is good and also bad. Good because the Colonel has already shown that he can control & Society and a Journal which can live, and bad because he has also shown that his views of the Buddhist Religion are as bold as they are delightfully yisionary. The complete and unconscious misapprehension of every aspect of the subject he affects to have deeply studied is indeed the most charming part of the addresses he delivers. He is always poetical and nearly always wrong in every view to which he gives expression. He is " chief adviser" of the new Society, and in the first number of its Journal
are many echoes of his ideas. There is the same magnificent disregard of actual facta, and the same enchanting inaccuracy as to details in historical references on every page, that have always distinguished the writers on Theosophy. Here is a fine sample:
"It is only a baseless tradition that Buddhism was destroyed by the Aryans. As yet no evidence has been forthooming to show that the vandalism was done by them. But, on the contrary, there are facts and historical data to prove conclusively that the catastrophe was accomplished by the Muhammedan(sic) invaders of India. The temples of Vishnu, Siva and other devatás (sic) did not escape the fire and sword of the devastating Moslem. The destruction of Buddhism dates from the time of the invasion of India by Muhamad (sio) of Ghazni."
Could anything be more delightful than this Just before the above passage we are told "that Buddhism was destroyed seven centuries ago in
1 It is to be hoped that. Bud-Gaya' will be dropped as hopelesaly wrong etymologically.
