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224
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1895.
corpse in funeral procession. When the funeral was over the garland was hung in the church.46 In England, flowers used to be sprinkled on rivers on Holy Thursday.47 Wells at Buxton and Tissington in Derbyshire used to be dressed with garlands of flowers, and nosegays used to be Alung into fountains.“
Fruits. - Fruits soare spirits, because friendly ancestors are believed to live in fruit trees. So in the pregnancy ceremony, among higher class Hindus in Western India, a girl's lap is filled with rice and such fruits, as dates, plantains, betelnuts and cocoanuts. 19 Among higher class Hindus, the ceremony of lap-filling is also performed at a girl's marriage and coming of age, and when she gives birth to a child. The Bombay Prabhus, at their marriage and thread-girding ceremonies, fasten a pair of cocoanuts and an umbrella to a pole in front of their house. The origin of the distribution of betelnuts and leaves and cocoanuts among guests after . Hindu marriage is probably to scare spirits. Among high class Hindus in Bombay, with the admitted object of scaring spirits, when the bridegroom starts from the bride's house, a cocoanut, and sometimes a knife, is placed in his hand. The Bombay Prabhas and Panchakalsis tie a betelnut and a piece of turmeric root to the wrists of the bride and bridegroom.50 The Korvis of Belgaum tie a cocoanut to the bridegroom's right wrist.61 That the original object of fruit or food offerings was to scare, and not to please, spirits, is seen in the drill plough-worship of the Bijapur Raddis. Among them in June, at the beginning of the sowing season, a cocoanut is broken and thrown on each side, that the place spirits may leave and make room for Lakshmi, who is represented by the plough.52 Among the Jirê Govandis, or Markthâ masons of Shâlâpur, at a wedding, the boy's brother stands behind him holding a lemon spiked on the point of a dagger.53 Gujarat Vânis tie a cocoanut and a piece of sandalwood to the bier.56 The Gond bride receives some pieces of cocoa kernel from the bridegroom's father the day before the wedding.65 In England, oranges used to be hung over wine to keep it from getting foisty, and oranges stuck with cloves were given as a New Year's gift. 56 On All-hallow Eve it was customary to dive for apples, or to bite at an apple stuck at one end of a circling pole at the other end of which a lighted candle was fized.57
Food.- Hungere is a spirit; food removes hunger, therefore food scares spirits. In the Kônkan, when a person is smitten by the Evil Eye, cooked rice is spread on a plantain leaf, curds and red powder are sprinkled over the rice, a flour-lamp is set on the powder, and the whole is waved round the possessed and taken to a place where three roads meet.59 So in Dhårway, if a child will not eat, the mother takes three pinches of food, waves them round the child, and throws them on the floor to a dog or a cat. The evil influence is caught in the waved food, and passes from the child to the dog by whom the food is eaten. On the September-October full-moon days the Bijapur Raddis take cooked food to the fields, and lay some in the middle, and some in each corner,61 Among Bijapur Shimpis, when the boy and girl reach the bridegroom's house, each puts five morsels of food into the other's mouth.42 Among Gujarat Brahmans, when the bridegroom comes to the girl's booth, her mother waves round him a lamp and two balls of rice and turmeric. In Madras the Lingayats call dining, Siva-pujá or Siva worship. The Ooras of Mexico spike meat upon sticks and set the sticks
46 Op.cit. Vol. II. p. 302.
47 Dyer's Folk-Lore, p. 4.
18 Op. cit. p. 2. ** Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. 61 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXI. p. 171.
11 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 147. 65 Op. cit. Vol. XX. p. 96.
54 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 277. * Hislop's Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, App. I. p. iii. * Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I p. 11.
67 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 377. * The German postern spectre, who, before Christmas, is chased from village to village, seems to be Hanger. Post in Slavio for "fast' or 'hunger. Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 938. 59 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
** Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXII. p. 50. 61 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 148.
61 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 168. * Op.cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 165.
Madras Journal, Vol. XI. p. 149.
