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NOVEMBER, 1894.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
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spirits. -- the Vaishnava or protecting element in many faiths, -the origin of family badges, the Hinda dévak, the American totem, the Australian dobong.
One result of the guardian, ordual type, of religion - Zoroastrianism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and Christianity – was to increase the power and the fear of unfriendly spirits ; the greater the evil to be warded, the higher the value of the guardian. None of the higher faiths seems so suited to foster magic as Buddhism. Its ascetic morality, its deification of dread, and its want of a controlling guardian, made practical Buddhism a fight between fiends and magic. The Jain gørjis are the only body of priests in Western India, whose chief function is exorcisim.76 Among the Kirántis, or Kirâtis (calling themselves Khombos and Kirâwas) on the Bhutân and Nepal borders are exorcists, who wander dressed as Buddhist priests, dance and cast out devils.77 The Lepchas of East Bengal, who are Buddhists, have priests who are medicine men, exorcists and directors of feasts in honour of evil spirits.78 The Buddhist Bhutiss of Bhutan believe in a countless host of spirits, and make them offerings of flowers and rags.79 In North Bhutan the Buddhist priests are the doctors of the people. Exorcism is the only system of treatment.80 Brahmans have despised this power of exorcism, trusting to 'Siva, the ruler of spirits; and among Lingayats the wearing of the ling frees from the fear of spirits.
The following examples support the view that the family dead were the first guardians. The Koinar pâiks of Kanara believe that the spirits of their ancestors become guardians of their houses. They make offerings of fowls and sheep to these guardian spirits on the last day of Dasara.81 The Havig Brahmans of Kanara, on their marriage and other auspicious occasions, worship the eight mátrikás, or mothers, and the pitris, or ancestral spirits who are considered as guardians.82 The Atto Vakkals offer a cock to the guardian spirits, or nas.* The guardians of the Shenyi Tirs, or Shindas, of Gujarat is Bhildimata, a woman of the house.84 The Central Provinces Kols bring back the souls of the dead to be worshipped as house spirits.85 The guardian of the Kors, or Mussis, of West Bengalis the spirit of a dead chief.86 The Buniyâs of the Central Provinces leave a dish of flour on the tomb, and going back search for the print of a fowl's foot. The print shows that the dead is pleased, and has come as a guardian.87 The Bhuiyas, a Turanian or Dravidian Bengal tribe, worship the sun as a guardian, calling it Virî, or Mahabir, the heroic dead.88 The Orissa Khonds had the country full of guardian spirits.89 The guardian of the Central Provinces Gonds is a dead man. The worship of a dead ancestor as a guardian is recorded from all parts of the world. Among the Hindus the whole dinner has first to be offered to the guardian. They put morsels of food in five places. 02 The Veddas of Ceylon think the dead are guardians.93 In Burma people are buried alive at the gates of cities, in order that they may become guardians and hover about the gates and bring harm on strangers. In Burma certain nåts (spirits) are considered as the guardians of the empire.95 The Bghai Karens of Burma have one or more stones as household gods, to which they offer a cock. They say: "If we do not give them blood, they will eat us."96 The Chinese have a female guardian spirit called Kum Fa, a deified woman, who presides over child birth and diseases. In Japan, in front of Shinto temples, many fowls are offered to guardian gods. The Melanesians of the Pacific have champion stones in the house associated with some dead person. The ancestral guardian is worshipped in Tasmania, New Zealand and Madagascar. The 76 From MS. notes.
11 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 104. 18 Op. cit. p. 101. [Cf. also "Demonolatry in Sikhim Lamaism," ante, p. 197 ff. -ED.) 79 Op. cit. p. 97.
$0 Op. cit., loc. cit. # Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XV. pp. 289, 201. 63 Op. cit. Vol. XV. p. 125. Op.cit. Vol. XV. p. 251. # From MS, notes
85 Tylor's Primitire Culture, Vol. II. p. 152. 56 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 232.
87 Op.cit. p. 148. 85 Op. cit. p. 147.
$9 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 187. 9 Hislop's Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, App. III. 1 Tylor's Primitive ('rliure, Vol. II. p. 113. 92 Ward's Vier of the Hindus, Vol. II. p. 34.
9 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 117. # Shway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. I. p. 286.
* Op. cit. p. 197. * Fytche's Burmah, Vol. I. p. 355.
7 Gray's China, Vol. I. p. 164. » Reed's Japan, Vol. I. p. 62.
* Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. X. p. 276.
