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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1896.
dust lays the vagrant sonl of the ship-wrecked Archytas.14 To the Muslim the dusty forehead is lacky or mubiruk: where water is scarce, & sand-bath makes the Muslim ceremonially clean. No evil can assail the Shi'a Muhammadan who rests his brow on a cake of earth from holy Karbala. The Muslims of Senegal in Upper-West Africa throw sand or earth over their heads. Ibn Batuts, the great Arab traveller (A. D. 1342), has described the wallowing and dusting of the old Negrotic courts. Johnson remarked the same at Zenda, Clapperton at Oyo, and Denham among the Musgows.15 Among the Waguhàs of South-Central Africa the saluter takes a handful of sand or earth with his right hand, throws a little into his left hand, and rubs the rest over his elbow and stomach.16 When the South African Balonda salutes, he drops on his knees, rubs dust on his arms and chest, and keeps on clapping his hands,17 The Negro keeper at Whydah, in West Africa, before lifting daughue, the sacred python, rubbed his right hand on the ground and dusted his forehead, as if grovelling before a king,18 In this West African case, the keeper's object in tonching the ground was apparently to discharge his haunting evils, as his object in dusting his brow was to scare his swarm of fly-spirits which, if not scattered, might annoy the holy python. The well-made gigantic Patagonian (A. D. 1520), who ran capering and singing to the beach to meet the Spaniards, kept throwing dust on his head in token of friendship.10 Here, as in the Christian burial service, the dust thrown on the Patagonian's head lays the spirits which swarm round him, and which, if not laid, might harm or annoy the strangers to whom the Patagonian was anxious to be civil. The horror of the fly-swarm, shewn in the proverb, "Scabies supremum capiet, Plague take the hindmost," seens to explain the "Onrush" as a salute. In North Africa, before coming to a town, the horsemen skirmish in front of the caravan, and gallop by pairs to the Governor's door, firing muskets.20 At Mandara, in Central Africa, in A. D. 1824, on visiting a great man, the rule was to gallop to him at full speed.21 The old faith, in leaving evil behind, is perhaps at the root of the English canter for the avenue.
At first thought, submission seems rightly to claim the salute of standing on one foot. Still the details are difficult, and seem to point to an underlying spirit basis. When Philippine Islanders meet, they bend low, place their hands on their cheeks, and raise one foot in the air with the knee bent, 22 apparently shewing that standing on one foot is lucky. Meadows Taylor describes the fear-struck Hindu broker standing on his left leg, with the sole of the right leg pressed against the left calf, his hands joined, his turban awry 23 Submission seems sufficiently to explain this action. At the same time the standing of a Hindu ascetic on one foot "like a crane" is among the most merit-giving of positions. So, in Siam, the temporary or hop king, who stands three hours on one foot, by so standing, gains a victory over evil influences.24 The Catholic Church recognises the fly-swarm and the in-dwelling evils. The holy water at the Church porch scatters the fly-swarm; the Sign of the Cross made in front of the face prevents the in-dwelling evil in the worshipper annoying the Crucifix or the High Altar.
Of the salate as a clearer of the surroundings rather than of the spirit-swarms that fly-like go with the saluter, spitting is an instance. In Europe, spitting is an abusive salute. To spit in a man's face means: "You are a devil or devil-ridden and must be scared." So to keep off evil influences, when a Sunni talks with a Shi'a, he spits secretly. Similarly, some natives of India keep secretly spitting when they talk to an European, or when they talk on some ill-omened topic. The root of this practice is the belief in the healing, and therefore spirit-scaring, virtue of spittle. If the spittle is a guardian, to spit on a person may be a gracious as well as an abusive salate.
14 Horace, Odes, I. xxviii.
18 Burton'a Mission to Dahomey, Vol. I. p. 259. 10 Stanley's Dark Continent, Vol. I. p. 54. 17 Dr. Livingstone's Travels in South Africa, p. 296. 18 Burton's Mission to Dahomey, Vol. I. p. 95. 19 Drake's Cavendish and Dampier, p. 37. 30 Denham and Clapperton, Vol. II. p. 229. 21 Op.cit. Vol. I. p. 284. 33 Hone's Table Book, p. 187.
23 Confessions of a Thug, p. 147. # Frazor's The Golden Bough, Vol. I. Pp. 230, 231, 233.
