________________
AUGUBT, 1895.
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
221
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
BY J. M. CAMPBELL, C.I.E., I.C.S.
Continued from p. 220.) L EATHERS. — Peacock feathers are considered sacred by the Hindus, and are used for
T fanning idols. The god Hirava of the Vârlis and Kolis of Thânâ is a bundle of peacock feathers. At the Divali (October-November) Vårll boys of Thank put a peacock feather into a brass pot, and dance round it.65 The Môdi, or Kôrvi, sorcerers of Belgaum wear feathers in their turbans.86 Hindu messengers used to wear a feather in their head-dress.67 Feathers were the common ornaments of Epyptian gods.68 The early tribes of Australia wear feathers, teeth and fish bones in their hair.89 The people of New Britain, east of New Guinea, deck their hair with gay feathers.70 The Melville Islanders fasten a feather in their hair.71 Feathers are worn on the head by the Harvey Islanders.72 The Motus of New Guinea wear the feathers of the cassowary as a head-dress:73 The Easter Islanders wear & crown of grass round which feathers are stack.74 The state carpet of Hawaii, in the Pacific, is of feathers.75 The Niam. Niams of Central Africa wear a plame of feathers.76 The Wasagaras of the East African hills wear vulture and ostrich feathers in their hair.77 Many Africans and Americans wear plumes in their hair, In South Africa a pink feather is a sure guard against lightning.78 The Dinkas of the White Nile wear ostrich feathers in their hair.70 Feathers are worn by the priestesses of Dahomey.80 Among some American Indians & head dress full of feathers is sacred. In Russia, feathers are worn on the head only by married ladies.82 In Russia, feathers used to be laid on the face of the dead.93 The Pope is always uccompanied with flabelli, or feather fans.84 The badge of the Prince of Wales is of ostrich feathers.
Flags. - Flags are lucky. They scare fiends and they house guardians.86 So on their New Year's Day, on the 12th of January, most high class Hindus in the Dekhan and Kônkan chew nim leaves with sugar, and set in front of their houses a bamboo pole capped with a brass or silver pot, and with a new piece of cloth hanging to it as a flag.86 The pole is often adorned with flower garlands and mango leaves.97 Tour small flags are set in the ground where the Poona Dhruva Prabhu is burnt.88 The Ahmednagar Dhôrs plant three small red flags on the grave. Several large and small flags are set in front of the three-cornered mound, which is raised where a Dharwar Madhava Brâhman has been burnt.50 The Rattas, early Hindu chiefs of the Karnatak, carried banners with a fig tree and a garud, or eagle, and used the mark of a lion.91 In Kinara, the Roman Catholics of each parish have a flag, with a picture of their patron saint on it, which, on the patron's yearly feast, is hung on a pun tree about sixty yards in front of the church.92 The ancient Persians had a tiger skin banner.93
65 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XIII. p. 188. 6 Op. cit. Vol. XXI. p. 171. 67 Dabiston, Vol. II. p. 111. 63 Tiele's Egyptian Religion, p. 87.
6 Wallace's Australasia, p. 91, To Op. cit. p. 468. 11 Earl's Papuans, p. 200.
12 Gill's Polynesia, p. 9. T: Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. VII. p. 477.
it Op. cit. Vol. V. p. 111. 76 Jones' Crowns, p. 451.
76 Schweinfurth's Heart of Africa, Vol. II. p. 8. 17 Burton's Lake Region of Contral Africa, Vol. I. p. 235. Cunningham's South Africa, p. 159. * Schweinfurth's Heart of Africa, Vol. I. p. 150. 80 Burton's Dahomey, Vol. II. p. 154. #1 Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 304. 07 Mrs. Romanoff's Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russian Church, p. 215. 83 Op. cit. p. 393.
84 Chambers's Book of Days, p. 397. 85 The freedom of its movements is perhaps the root cause why the flag is believed to be possessed or alive. Later their guardian influence is supposed to be due to their colouring and to the pictures of guardians drawn upon them. Each of the old secret societies of England, the Foresters and other brotherhoods, had its emblem and its flag with the emblem emblazoned on it. In England the war flag is known as "the colours," and "the colours" are still consecrated when now, and their torn remains preserved in some great place of worship. The camp religion of the Romans, says Tertullian (A, D. 196), was all through a worship of the standards. Smith's Christian Antiquities, p. 909. 86 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
87 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. €$ Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 191.
89 Op. cit, Vol. XVII. p. 169. 90 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 85.
P1 Dr. Fleet's Kinara Dynasties, p. 7. 92 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XV. p. 386.
93 West's Pahlaus Texts, p. 223.
