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JONE, 1895.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
159
America paint the dead with vermilion or red earth.de Mexican warriors smeared their bodies with bright paint.100 Greek girls had their toe and finger nails rose-tipped to keep spirits from coming in.'
Black. - Spirits fear black, particularly lamp-black. Hindn women commonly nse lamp-black to anoint their eyes and lamp-black is sometimes applied to cure itch. When & Hinda woman takes a young child out of doors, she marks its cheeks with lamp-black to keep off the Evil Eye. The Vaishnava marks his brow with an up-and-down line of lamp-black, or angár, as a guard against spirits. The black marks in tattooing are admitted by Gujarat Bhils to have the power of scaring spirits, and it seems to be its power of marking black that gives its holiness to the marking-nut. The special value of jet as an ornament seems to have been due to its power over spirits. The use of jet and of other forms of black clothing and ornament in mourning was apparently because black was able to shield the wearer from spirits. So also, perbaps, the Buddhists, Jains and Vaishnavas colour their gods black. The Sravak bridegroom in Gujarât wears a black silk-thread round his right ankle. In Gujarat Muhammadan women, before taking a child out, mark its feet, cheeks and palms with black to keep off evil spirits, and to ward off the Evil Eye they put a bit of charcoal into milk. The Poona Halálkhôrs, as a part of the wedding ceremony, blacken the bride and bridegroom's teeth. Hindu lying-in women in the Dekhan sometimes rub their teeth with black dentifrice. Black thread and black nuts are hang round a Dekhan Kunbi child's neck, to help it to hold up its head.7 Among the Ahmednagar Kolis, to keep off the Evil Eyes the child's eyes are marked with soot. In Dharwar, Liugâynt women blacken their teeth. The Vaishgava sect-mark for men is an up-and-down black mark with a red water-like circle of turmeric and cement. Kaparese women blacken their teeth with antimony.10 Among Bijapur Brahmaps, on the fourth day after a marriage, when the bride and bridegroom are making ready to go to the boy's house, the girl's mother goes to the house-shrine, and, holding a tray with a burning lamp over her head, walks five times round the marriage guardian. As she walks, her brother holds a sword above the flame. When the fifth turn is ended, the soot is scraped off the sword blade, and it is spotted over the boy's and girl's faces. 11 The Bijapur Lingayat Kumbhars mark the bride and bridegroom's brows with soot to keep off the evil eye.1% Karnatak Brahmaus, in thread-girding, blacken the boy's eye-lids, 13 and among Karnatak Muhammadans, when a man is attacked with severe fever, a black cloth, black grain, and a black hen are waved round the man and taken oat to a river side. The black hen is possessed by the fever-spirit, and is allowed to go into the jungle. Arab and Persian women make a black circle round the eye.14 According to the ancient Persians of the Sipasian faith, Saturn was a black stone, his temple was black, and his ministrante negroes, who were clad in blue.15 Women in Central Asia ased to blacken their teeth.16 In Burma, at the fish festival, some boys walk with their faces chalked, and others with their faces sooted.17 Japanese girls at marriage blacken their teeth.18 Women in the Philippine Islands blacken their teeth.19 The Motus of New Guinea, when in mourning, blacken their whole body.20 In Central Africe.
» First Report of the American Ethnographic Society, p. 169. 100 Jour Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 260.
i Chandler in Clarke's Travels in Greece, Vol. IV. p. 8. 1 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
? Of gajates, or jet, Pliny, Natural History, Book X VI. Chap. 19, says: "The smell of burning jet chaseth nerponts and recovereth women that lie in a trance. It discovereth the falling sickness, and sheweth whether & damsel be a maiden or no. Boiled with wine it helpeth tooth-ache, and tempered with wax it coreth the king's evil. It is much used by magicians." • Information from Mr. Paul Lutfullah.
5 Information from Mr. Fazl Latfullah. • Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 438.
1 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 299. • Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 203.
• Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 122. 19 Moore's Little, p. 289.
1 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXIII. p. 87. 13 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 250.
13 Dubois, Vol. II. p. 221.
Moore's Lille, p. 289. 18 Dabist in, Vol. I. p. 35.
16 Schuyler's Turkistan, Vol. I. p. 181. 37 Sbway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. II. p. 45. 18 Manners and Customs of the Japaness, p. 179. 19 Churchill, Vol. IV. p. 429.
* Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. VII, p. 490.
