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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1895.
The Jews seem to have held banners over feasters. Each tribe of the Jews had a banner.95 Freemasons have a general standard with a yellow cross.96 Masons in a procession carry six banners of satin or silk fringed with blue, with, on each banner, one of the words Faith, Hope, Charity, Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. In the Royal Arch Chapter four officers carry banners - white, scarlet, and blue.97 The Burmans have praying flags.88 Between A. D. 1000 and 1200, Japan was wasted by the wars of the red and white flags. In North-West Africa, every mosque has a banner;200 and all Masalman pilgrims carry flags. In Morocco a white flag is hoisted on mosques at prayer time. At the coronation of the Russian Emperor, the banner of Russia is first sprinkled with holy water and given to the Emperor, who waves it thrice.3 Froissart describes Douglas, who was slain at Otterburn, as buried at Melrose beneath the high altar, on his body a tomb of stone and his banner hanging over him. According to Anglo-Saxon accounts the Northmen had a wonderful standard borne before their army, from whose behaviour they inferred victory or defeat.
Flowers.-Their scent, colour and medical properties have earned for flowers a place among guardians, or spirit-scarers. When a Hindu visits the shrine of any local god or goddess, the ministrant gives him either ashes or flowers. These flowers are considered lucky. In the Kônkan, flowers are used by Hinda exorcists to drive out spirits. The exorcist gives flowers and ashes to a man suffering from spirit-possession. If the patient keeps them for a certain number of days the haunting spirit departs. In Western India, many classes of Hindus tie chaplets of flowers round the brows of the bride and bridegroom. In the worship of the boy at the Chitpavan wedding, the boy has a chaplet of flowers, and grains of rice are thrown over him. In the Chitpavan pregnancy ceremony, & necklace of figs is hung round the woman's neck, she is covered with ornaments, and her hair is decked with flowers. The Poona Halálkhôrs hang a garland round the bride's neck, and the bride and bridegroom throw flowers and rice on the house gods. Among them, on the third day after a death, the chief mourner lays a flower garland on the grave, and on the spot in the house where the dead breathed his last. The Lingayats hang flower garlands round the neck of the dead.10 Poona dyers, or Niláris, sprinkle turmeric and flowers over the dead.11 Sweetmeats and flowers are laid on the spot where the Pardêsî Râjput of Poona is buried.12 On the third day after death, flowers dipped in scent are strewn on the Dekhan Musalman grave.13 In a Dekhan Musalman woman's first pregnancy, she and her husband are seated on a cot and wreathed with flowers.14 In Kôlhậpur, when a child is suffering from a disease, called bálagraha, or child-seizure, flowers are waved round the child's face.15 The Kunbis of the Bombay Karnatak have a festival, called pavaty dché purnima, or "the hank full-moon," when they throw round the neck of every one in the house, and round lamps and other articles, a hank of yellow thread. 16 In a Karnatak Kunbî's wedding a flower garland is thrown by the bride over the bridegroom and another by the bridegroom over the bride.17 The Karnatak Madhava Brâhmaņs throw flower garlands round the bridegroom's neck when he crosses the border of the girl's village, 18 and in the fifth month of her pregnancy the Madhava woman is decked with buds.19 Among the Shenvis of Kinara, at the ceremony of betrothal, the boy's people cover the girl's head with flowers.20 In
** Compare Song of Solomon, i. 2. 96 Op. cit. p. 34.
97 Op.cit. p. 38. 99 Reed's Japan, Vol. I. p. 137. ? Rohlf's Morocco, p. 65. • Note Z to Lay of the Last Minstrel. 7 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 132. , Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 439. 11 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 355. 18 Information from Mr. Syed Daud. 15 Information from Mr. B. B. Vakhirkar, B.A. 17 Op. cit. Vol. XXI. pp. 121, 122. 19 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 83.
AS Mackay's Freemasonry, p. 27. 95 Shway Yoe's The Burman, Vol. I. p. 153. 100 Hay's Western Barbary, p. 126. 1 Op. cit. p. 132. s Jones' Crowns, p. 382.
+ Vol. III. p. 165. 6 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 1112. $ Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 146. 10 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 237. 12 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 404. 2. Information from Mr. Syed Dadd. 16 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXI. p. 115. 18 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 80. 20 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 155.
