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JULY, 1895.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
217
is pure.74 Among Sholapur Mhars, the chief mourner scatters earth on the dead body, the other mourners follow, and the grave is filled.75 A sacred yellow earth found in a pond in West Kâhiâwâr, called milkmaid's sandal wood, or góp chandun, is used by Vaishnavas to make the brow-mark.76 Jain mourners, on going home after a funeral, wash their hands with earth and water.
The Kols swear by the earth of a white ant-hill.77 Dast from cross roads is worn by Hindus as an amulet against the Evil Eye.78 In Bengal, when a mother takes her child ont of doors, she rabs its forehead with earth or the end of a lamp-wick, and spits on its breast.79 In Bengal, women clean their hair with mud.80 At the great annual bathing of the goddess Durgå, she is first washed in earth thrown up by a hog's tooth gathered from the door of a courtezan, or from an ant-hill.91 In rude stone-tombs on the Nilgiris, in 1832 and 1847, urns were found full of black earth and bones.82 In his daily bath, a Hindu should rub himself with mud.83 In Bengal, the dying Hindu has his head sprinkled with water and smeared with clay from the Ganges.84 Fryer, in 1673 (p. 115), mentions a man at Sürat trying to cure dysentery by setting a pot filled with dried earth on the patient's navel. The Egyptians, he says, had a similar practice. At Sürat, in 1640, to avert a drought, Brâhmans went about carrying a board with earth on it on their heads.85 Scented earth is nsed as soap in some parts of Hindustan.86 That rubbing with dust purifies a man was one of the ideas Rttacked by the Buddhists.87 Hindus and Pârsis use earth to clean their cooking vessels. So before praying, if there is no water, the Musalman may cleanse his face, hands and feet with sand, The Parsis parify with dry earth.89 When they have cut their nails and their hair, they make the parings and clippings into a little heap, and pour earth over the heap, so that demons may not enter into the parings and clippings. In Persia, during their monthly sickness, women lived in a separate room strewn with dry dust. Among the Beni-Isra'ils, each mourner stuffs a handful of earth into a pillow, and it is set under the dead man's head in the grave. Afterwards each mourner throws a handful of earth into the grave." The belief that spirits fear earth was perhaps the reason why, after a death, the Jews covered their heads with dust and ashes. In Central Asia, people scrape a little earth from the grave, carry it home and rub it on the breast to lessen grief.s3 Khurd women at funerals throw handfnls of earth on their heads, and tear their clothes.94
The Andaman Islanders use clay as a cure in illness, 95 and women with child eat clay.96 The Andamanese cover the body with clay and sand as a protection against vermin.97 The Australians also cover their bodies with coloured earth mixed with oil. Among the Chinese armlets of perfamed clay are strung on thread and worn as charms." The Australians cure a wound by sprinkling it with dast.100 A poultice, of Nile mud, is a certain cure for a scalded head. Some Madagascar tribes plaster their faces with white earth, as a care for certain complaints. Hottentot women paint theinselves with red ochre when they pray. In East Africa, red clay is eaten by Mahenge women. The Wagogos of East Africa (and many other
*6 Op. cit. Vol. XX. pp. 82, 84. 0 Op. cit. Vol. XX. p. 180.
Information from Col. Wataon. 77 Jour. R. A. Soc. Vol. XVIII. p. 873.
* Balfour's Encyclopædia, Vol. V. p. 29. 19 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. II. p. 161. se Op. cit. Vol. IIL p. 197. $1 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 115.
$Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 161. 3 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. II. p. 30. # Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I. p. 135. 86 Fryer, p. 418.
86 Moor's Little, p. 296. 87 Max Müller's Hibbert Lectures, 1878, p. 555.
Bleek's Avesta, p. 67. 89 Bleek's Khordah Avesta, P. 186.
" Dabistan, Vol. I. p. 317. 91 Bleek's Avesta, pp. 122, 123.
Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 534. * Sobuyler's Turkestan, Vol. I. p. 152.
91 Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. II. p. 181. 95 Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. VII. p. 162.
Op. cit. Vol. VII. p. 462. 97 Op. cit. Vol. VII. p. 439
Op. cit. Vol. VII. p. 445. .. Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 39.
190 Wallace's Australasia, p. 99. 1 Parson's Travela, 1775, p. 312.
> Sibree's Madaguscar, p. 294. • Habn's Toni Goam, p. 124,
Thomson's Across Central Africa, Vo!. I. p. 191.
