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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1895.
both these shapes are still worn in Naples to keep off the Evil Eye.97 All over India the horned face, or Singh Mukh, guards the threshold, the pillars, the ceiling corners, and the roof tops of countless Jain and Brabmanic temples. This face has absorbed the earlier hornless Fame, or Medusa-face, known as Kirti Mukh, and the Sun face, or Surya Mukh. With slight alterations it remains the centre of many a flowing band of Musalman tracery from Mahmûd's tomb in Ghazni to the mosques and shrines of the Pañjab, Gujarat and the Dekhan. Singh Mukh still looks out from his veil of leaves in the central feature of many a belt of ornament in Indian carved tables, book cases, screens and almiras. The Christianity of Western Europe has degraded the early guardian horn face to Old Horny, the Devil. The Virgin standing on the crescent moon is said to symbolize the power of the Queen of Heaven. An earlier and rader sense is that the crescent moon is chosen, because it is horned. The honoured Virgin wants protection. The horns, on which she stands, will scare evil influences. In a rough frescoe in an inn at Baio near Naples, one of the horns of the moon, on which the Virgin's feet rest, is curved like an oxhorn. Across the other horn, which is stiff, a snake is thrown.89
Incense. -The fumes of certain gums and woods cure fainting fits and swoons. In the Kônkan, the fames of the leaves of Raphanus sativus are supposed to cure piles.89 Another element in the belief in the demon-scaring power of incense is the Persian idea thatco bad smells are evil spirits which good smells can put to flight. The origin of burning incense in raligious services seems to be partly to please the guardian, partly to scare evil spirits from him. On the one hand the medium, or bhagat, inhales the fumes of frankincense that his familiar spirit may enter his body; on the other hand, according to Burton, spirits can be drivenol from haunted houses by a good store of lights, odours, perfumes and suffumigations, as the angel taught Tobias to use brimstone, bitumen, myrrh, and briony root. In the Konkan, when a person is believed to be possessed by a spirit, a fire is kindled. On the fire some human hair, narky d 18bån or dung-resin, and a little bog dung, or horse hair, are dropped, and the head of the sufferer is held over the fumes for a few minutes. If the spirit is weak, it gets frightened and makes off.92 The burning of incense before an idol is an essential part of Hindu worship. No Hindu worship is complete until incense is burnt and waved before the god.03 Cigal (aloes) is believed to drive away spirits. So the Gugli Brâhmaņs of Dwarka say they get their name, because they drove away a demon by the help of alges or gúgal.04 Myrrh, aloes, benzoine, camphor and sandal are all considered purifying and healing by the Hindus.es The Sántikamalakara, a Hindu religious work, states that when a child is suffering from the disease called bdlágraha, or child-seizure, sandal paste should be rubbed on its body, fumes of incense should be made to pass over it, and flower3, rice and a lighted lamp should be waved round its face.96 The Hindu ritual lays down that, before it is set on the pyre, the dead body should be rubbed with sandal-wood, perfumes, saffron, or aloe-wood.7 Strong fetid smells are used by Hindu doctors to cure diseases.89 Karnatak Musalmans say nothing is so great a spirit-scarer as a good smell, especially frankincense and flowers. Among the Malays, incense is used to counteract spells and scare spirits.100 The Chinese hold that incense purifies. When a Chinese child is sick with fever, the mother puts three burning incense sticks in its hand. A servant carries the child out of the house, and the mother follows, pretending to sweep, and calls “Begone, begone, begone." The Motus of New Guinea stick bunches of sweet-smelling leaves in their armlets. In Madagascar, gums and fragrant wood are burnt on special religious occasions. In Africa, when their 87 From MS. noto, 1889.
88 From MS, note, 1889. 89 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
90 Bleek's Khordah Avesta, Vol. I. p. 69. 91 Burton, p. 788.
n Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. 95 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
# Information from Colonel Barton. 95 Maurioo's Indian Antiquities, Vol. V. p. 897.
6 Information from Mr. B. B. Vakh&rkar. Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I. p. 159.
98 Maurice's Indian Antiquities, Vol. VII. p. 637. * Information from Mr. Kelkar.
100 Jour. R. A. Soc. Vol. XIII. p. 522. 1 Gray's China, Vol. I. p. 162.
? Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 30. • Jour. Anthrop. lut. Vol. VII. p. 479.
Sibree's Madagascir, p. 803.
