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SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
SEPTEMBER, 1895.]
husbands are hunting, Hottentot women burn something like rosin, which they find on the sea shore and pray for success. In Roman Catholic ceremonies, the garments of the priests are incensed, apparently that no evil influence may lurk among them. Among the Roman Catholics, the bread and wine at Mass are incensed; the altar and the priest are incensed,7 and the Bible is incensed three times before the Gospel is read. According to Mr. Ruskin, the daily services, lamps, and fumigations of cathedrals on the Continent make them safe. English cathedrals are unwholesome. In a Greek Church baptism incense is waved in frout of the font.10 The Bulgarians hold it a sin not to fumigate flour when it comes home from the mill. Intolerable smells drive off spirits.13 So, the Angel Raphael drove out the demon Asmodeus by making a stench with a fish's liver.13 In England, spirits were believed to have delicate nostrils, dreading certain stinks and loving certain perfumes.14 In England (1570), on the Twelfth Night, to guard those organs from sickness, the head of the house burned frankincense and fumed his own and his children's noses, eyes, ears, and teeth. Then the incense was carried round the house to drive off witches.15 In England (1800), coffins used to be anointed with rich odours.16
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Indecency.. Spirits are said to be afraid of indecency, especially of the male and female organs. So in the Hôli festival, Hindus call out the names of the male and female organs, according to the Mahábhirata, to scare the monster called Dhundharakshasi, who troubles children. Among the Dekhan Râmôśis, before the turmeric rubbing, the bridegroom is stripped naked.17 In Poona and in parts of Gujarât, at the festival of Sirâl Sôt, on the sixth of Sravan, or August, lower class Hindu women dance in a circle round an image of Siral Sêt, singing indecent songs. This festival is specially observed by barren women.18 The Sholapûr Mhars are buried naked, even the loin-cloth is taken off.19 The Lingayat boy, about to be initiated, is kept naked and fasting all the morning.20 On Ganpati's day, the waxing fourth of Bhadrapad (August-September), it is unlucky to see the moon. Any one who sees the moon picks a quarrel with some one, and uses bad language in order to be abused in return.21 In a shrine at Mahakût near Badâmi in South Bijapur, a naked female figure lying on its back is worshipped by barren women. 22 In the Karnatak, naked and indecent figures are painted on idol cars and temples to keep off the Evil Eye.23 In 1623, the traveller Della Valle noticed on an idol car in Kânara the images of a man and woman in a dishonest posture.24 At the village festival of Dayamâva, in the Southern Maratha Country, women used to vow, if the goddess answered their prayer, they would walk naked to her temple. Women still walk without clothes, but covered with a garment of nim and mangoe leaves and boughs, and escorted by other women and children.25 At the same festival to Dayamava, the Mang who carries the basket of pieces of kid and buffalo flesh, and scatters them in the fields, is naked,20 and a Mâng, called Ranigia, abuses the goddess in the foulest language. Sir Walter Elliot notices that a similar outpouring of abuse formed part of the Greek Field Dionysia.27 In Bengal, at the
5 Hahn's Tsuni Goam, p. 77.
• Op. cit. p. 242.
10 Mrs. Romanoff's Rites and Customs of the -11 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 159. 13 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 260.
15 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 28.
17 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 416.
19 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XX. p. 180.
21 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
263
e Golden Manual, p. 249.
Op. cil. p. 233. • Preface to the Seven Lamps of Architecture. Græco-Russian Church, p. 70.
12 Spencer's Principles of Sociology, Vol. I. p. 259. 14 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 55. 16 Chambers's Book of Days, p. 274.
18 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
20 Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 232.
Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXIII. p. 666.
24 Haklnyt Soc. Ed. Vol. II. p. 260.
23 Information from Mr. Kelkar.
25 Jour. Ethno. Soc. New Series, Vol. I. p. 98.
Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 98.
The surface explanation of religious indecency in early festivals
27 Jour. Ethno. Soc. New Series, Vol. I. p. 100. is that the object of the festival is to cheer, and so to drive away bad spirits, and that indecency aids to this end, because bawd is the cheapest and the earliest humour. Judging from the Holi abuse, laughter is not the aim of the indecent words used at early field festivals. The abuse consists mainly in shouting the names of the male and female organs. That such shouting is common during the great spirit-season of Holt and at other times is not tolerated, shewa that the aim of the H shouting is religious, and that the words are shouted to bring luck, not to
