________________
168
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1895.
dances used to be held in North England on Easter Morn.16 The guarding effect of circle dances would be the same as the protection given to an object of worship by walking round it three times sunwise, that is, of pleasing wandering spirits by housing them. Dancing would then be associated with funerals, for the reason that drunkenness was practised at funerals, namely, to house spirits. The special religious position which dancing girls hold in India, is due to the belief that the dancers are scapegoats, drawing into themselves wandering spirits. In the Kanarese districts of Bombay and in Southern India almost every wedding, almost every religious procession of any importance, is headed by a group of dancing girls, whose right to head the procession seems difficult to explain, except that dancing, like music, was thought to scare spirits, or to please spirits by housing them.
Dung. Dung, like urine, is an early medicine; it is used as a plaster, and the fumes of
burnt dung restore consciousness. It is also used in parts of Western India as a cure for itch. These healing properties secured for dung a place among spirit-scarers.17 Most Hindus deny that the every-day smearing of a house with cow-dung has any basis, except the fact that it keeps the house sweet and clean. But the older belief that the sweetness and cleanness were due to the power of cow-dung to keep off evil spirits remains in the case of the smearing of a house after a death with the object of clearing the house of evil spirits. Further, several Hindu religious books, among them the Govardhananhika, Manu, and the Bhagavata Purana, admit the spirit-scaring properties of cowdung.19 In the East Dekhan, the exorcist threatens the spirit with the fumes of pig's dung, if the spirit does not declare who he is. Among Gujarât Kunbis, in the pregnancy ceremonies, goat and mouse dung are laid in a jar. In a Pârsi house, if a boy is much wished for and a boy is born, he is hidden, and instead of the boy a lump of cow-dung is shewn to the mother. The reason is to cleanse the mother's glance of the Evil Eye. Nearly the same idea seems to explain the practice of Hindu mothers, when a person over-praises, or, as the Sootch say, fore-speaks, their children, turning aside the Evil Eye by saying: "Look at your foot; it is covered with excrement." The Evil Eye in this, as in other cases, being the unhoused spirit, who, drawn to the child by hearing its praises, might make his abode in the child. So to prevent wandering spirits from lodging in his grain heap, the Hindu cultivator crowns it with a barháwan, or cow-dang cake. 19 Dalton notices that the Parhêyyâs of East Bengal used to smear their houses with sheep and deer dung instead of with cowdung,20 The Gonds make the bridegroom sit on a heap of cow-dung.21 In Bengal, cow's urine and dung are offered to the goddess Durga.22 In Mysore, the gurú, or spiritual teacher, pours cow-dung and water on his disciple's head.23 The Mysore Smart Brâhmans mark their brows with three horizontal lines of cow-dung ashes. According to Dubois, at Nandgaon, about thirty miles south of Seringapatam, a barren couple used to go outside the temple, make cakes of human dung, and eat a portion.25
-
Cow-dung and cow-urine, with milk, curds and butter, form the five cow-products, which are worshipped in South India. New earthen pots, are cleansed by pouring into them the five cow products-milk, curds, butter, dung and urine. The five pots are set on darba grass and worshipped. They are called the god Panchgavia, and the worshipper thinks on their merit and good qualities, lays flowers on them, and mentally presents them with a golden throne. Water is sprinkled and waved over them. They are crowned with coloured rice, and are mentally presented with jewels, rich dresses, and sandal wood. Flowers, incense, a burning lamp, plantains, and betel are offered, a low bow is made, and the following prayer repeated: "Panchgaviâ, forgive our sins and the sins of all beings who sacrifice to you and who drink
16 Op. cit. p. 83.
17 The fact that spirits in India and in Melanesia eat excrement (Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. X. p. 282) shews that is the healing power of dung, not its nastiness, of which spirits stand in dread.
18 Information from Mr. B. B. Vakhirkar, B.A.
1 Wilson's Glossary.
"Hislop's Gond Poem, p. 59.
20 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 131. 22 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. I. p. 115. 24 Op. cit. Vol. 1. p. 14.
25 Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. L p. 147. Dubois, Vol. II. p. 358.
