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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1895.
corals. In aome parts of England, when banns are published, bells are rung. The belief that bells are a charm, is shewn in Il Penseroso (pp. 83, 84):
The bellman's drowsy charm
To bless the doors from nightly harm. The coronation of English kings is announced by the firing of guns and the ringing of bells. Notes and Queries (April 19th, 1884, p. 308) contain the following Latin inscription copied from a bell :-" The living I call, the dead I bewail, the thunder I break. The true God I praise, the people I call, the priests I gather, the dead I bewail, the plague I scare, the feast I adorn." The bells in Longfellow's Golden Legend ring :-" I praise the true God; I call the people; I assemble the clergy." The devils tried to seize the bells, but could do nothing as the bells had been washed in holy water. In Wales (1815), a bell called Bangu, said to have belonged to St. David, cured sickness. At Oxford, when a person of academic rank is buried, a bellman walks in front of the coffin, ringing a bell.70
Blood. - Blood is a tonio in cases of weakness, and blood-lotting cures Alts and nervous attacks. According to Pliny, 71 a draught of human blood cares epilepsy and other diseases; and, according to Barton (1621), bleeding is a cure for sadness.72
In cases of piies the Ratnagiri Marathas give warmed goat's blood, and in cases of typhos or red discolouration of the skin, the patient is cured by killing a cock, and smearing the red blotches with its blood. Ratnagiri Mara ţhâs use the blood of the ghorpar, or big lizard, as a cure in snake-bite.73 Among certain low class Hindus in Poona, blood is poured down the nose of a patient suffering from a spirit-seizare,74 Bleeding cares sickness by letting out the devil. So Fryer (p. 141) says "By bleeding a vein I let out the devil which was crept into my palanquin bearer's fancies." The Bombay Pattanê Prabhus, before a marriage, let drops of goat's blood fall on the heads of the family goddesses.76 In Poona the blood of sheep and goats is sprinkled over the village idols.76 In Dharwâr, every third or fourth year, buffalo is killed in honour of the goddess Dayamava, and its blood sprinkled along the village boundary.77 On the Dasara day Kalâdg! Rajput householders slanghter & goat, and sprinkle its blood on the door-posts of their houses.78 Similarly at the Dasara festival Rome Dekhan Kunbis used to sprinkle their houses with sheep's blood.7 Most Bijapur Hindus, before using the threshing-floor, kill a goat and sprinkle its blood on the floor. Even Brâh mans and Lingayats sometimes have their threshing floors blood-cleansed by a Maratha or Rajpnt neighbour or servant. The great Bijapur gun is said to have been baptised in human blood by its maker, a Růmi, or Greek. In 1829, in the Southern Markthå Country, in the village of Sêrin, some fifty or sixty buffaloes and a hundred sheep used to be killed, and after some privileged persons had taken their heads, the villagers scrambled for the rest - watchmen, shepherds, outcastes and all low and high classes, even Brahmans rolling in the mass of blood.90 In East Berar, on the Dasara day, the blood of a buffalo is smeared on the brow of the village beadman.81
The Küs of the North-East frontier drink the blood of the sacrificial bull. Among the Malers of West Bengal, in January every year, demoniacs are bound until a buffalo is slaughtered, and are then given some of its blood to drink.8 So, when an epidemic comes, the Malers set up a pair of posts and & cross beam, and from the cross beam hang vessels
07 Dyer's Folk. Lore, pp. 190, 191.
Notes and Querirs, 19th April 1884, p. 308. 11 Pliny's Natural History, Book xxviii, Chap. 4. 13 Information from the peon Båbaji. TO Mr. K. Raghunath's Patrine Prabhua. " Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXII. Appendia A. " Trans. By. Lit. Soc. Vol. III. p. 224. * Balfour's Encyclopedia, Vol. V. p. 28.
Op. cit. p. 270.
* Jones' Crowns, p. 347. 70 Op. cit. p. 812. 12 Burton's Anatomy of Melanchow. P. 47. 14 Information from Mr. Shastri. * Op. cit. * Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 167.
Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 99. » Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bongal, p. 118
