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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(OCTOBER, 1895.
without waking him, she wins a pair of gloves. Perhaps, the sense of this glove-winning is that tho kiss sucks out the soul of the sloeper, the soul in sleep being apt to leave the sleeper's body, and that the owner redeems his soul by the gift of gloves. In England, to kiss a black cat is lucky. Tho proverb says:-"Kiss the black cat, 't will make ye fat. Kiss the white ore, it will muko yon lean."7 In this case the black cat seems to be a scape into which passes any evil spirit of lennness by which the kisser may have been baunted.
Leather.- Painting or hysterical patients are restored to conscionsness either by being beaten with a shoo or a lexther thony, or hy inlialing the fumes of burnt leather. Therefore spirits fear leather. So, in the Dekhan, a person troubled with nightmare sleeps with a shoe ander Jis pillow, and an exorcist frightens a spirit by threatening to make it drink water from the tamer's well. Poona Kunbis believe that to drink water from a cobbler's hands destroys a witels's power.49 Similarly, a Gnjarât witel's power is taken way by shaving her head, beating her with a twig of the arkii or giant swallow-wort and pouring down her throat water out of a tanner's jar.40 Among tho Kunbis of the Dekhan, if a man feels he has been struck by an incantation ho at once takes hold of an upturned shoe. The Tirmelis, a Telugu caste of beggars in Poona, on the fifth dny after birth, lay a leather shoe or sandal under a child's pillow to scare evil spirits,50 The Slólapúr Kömtis set an old shoe under the babe's pillow to keep off evil spirits. The Mòchis of Almadnagar, who are of southern origin, on the fifth night After a birth, worship Satvai, and lay a shoe under the child's pillow to keep away evil spirits.52 Among the Almadnagar Buils, those who have been put out of caste are let back by paying a 6no, and when too poor to pay they stand before the caste with their shoes on their heads.68 In Thana, people fasten old shoes to fruit-trees, in order that they may not be blighted by the Evil Eye, and may bear good fruit.54 The Bijapür Dhôr bride stands in a basket filled with rice and leather. If a Dharwar Patrada varu, or dancing girl, is struok with a shoe, she is out of caste, has to pay a fine, and go through penances.56 In Dharwar, a Brahman woman never wears shoes, except when she is lying in.57. At a Lingayat wedding, in Dhårwâs, the bridegroom's mother sits on a bullock's suddle, taking the bridegroom on her right knoe and the bride on her Jeft knee.te In South India, Hindus lift their shoes and swear at the whirlwind, which in Tamil districts is known as pishacha, or devil,50 To take off your shoes if you meet a great man and never to enter a house with shoes on, are two main rules of conduct in South India.co Dr. Buchanan tells how when his butler saw the ghost of a cook who had lately died, he put his shoes on the right side of the door, and so drove off the ghost.61 To strike with n slipper is a great offence in Sonthern Iudia. Any man who is so strack is put out of caste.62 In Bengal, in a Brahmar wedding ceremony, at the evening or spirit-time, the bride and bridegroom sit on a red bull's bide. When the Brahman bride first enters the bridegroom's honse she is seated on a red bull's hide. In the Godavari districts, when a woman is pregnant, to keep off demons, women burn a heap of rice husk, and tie & shoe to one door-post and a bunch of tuls to the other post.65 To scare a demon out of a person, the Shânîrs apply a slipper or a broom to the shoulder of the possessed.66 In Lancashire, Cornwall and London, if on going to bed you leave your shoes sole up, crossed, or, peeping out from beneath the coverlet, you need not fear cramp.87 The Circassians hang a goat-hide on a pole to keep off lightning.68 The
4 Op. cit. p. 193.
17 Dyer's Folk-Lors, p. 108. Trans. By. Lit. Soc. Vol. III. p. 218. Information from Mr. Vaikunthram.
Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 453. 31 Op. cit. Vol. XX. p. 55. 52 Op. cit. Vol. XVII. p. 122. 63 Op.cit. Vol. XVII. p. 193. 04 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi,
55 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXIII. p. 294. 06 Op. cit. Vol. XXII. p. 191.
67 Information from Mr. Tirmalrao. # Bombay Gazetteeer, Vol. XXII. p. 113.
30 Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 125, 4 Dubois, Vol. I. p. 407. 01 Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. III. P. 358. 1 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 466. « Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I. p. 221.
« Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 223. 65 Ind. Ant. July, 1875, p. 197.
& Caldwell in Balfour'. Encyclopedia. 67 Black's Folk Medicine, p. 182; Notes ad Queries, Vol. VIII. p. 505; Dyer's Folk. Lore, p. 164; Henderson's Folk-Lore, p. 155.
Crimu's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 1. p. 185.
