Indian Antiquary Vol 25

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 78

72
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MARCH, 1896.
performed for him after those for Jarantîya. He then left that place and came to the goddess Kalamma in the town of Maugalûr ana visited her. Her priests are known by the name of the people of the "Four Countries," and he made friendship with them, and a festival was performed for him at the gate of the temple of the goddess Kalamma. In the same manner the feast is performed to him there to this day.
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
BY J. M. CAMPBELL, C.L.E., I.C.S.
(Continued from p. 48.) Metals. - To the evidence given under this heading ante Vol. XXIV., p. 57 ff. (Ch. I., i., 5 c., Metals) in support of the view that, among spirit-scarors, metal holds a leading place, the following additions are offered. The bulk of this fresh material is connected with iron. It may be arranged under the following heads :-the simple virtue of cold iron, the virtue of iron to which is added the scaring quality of heat, the virtue of iron aided by the guardian power of the Tool, as the nail, the knife, the sword, the hatchet, the sickle, the ploughshare, the rake and the key ; finally iron with which is associated the merit both of a lucky shape and of a close connection with a guardian part of a guardian animal, such as the horse-shoe.
Iron.-Among the Hindus of Gujarat, in Western India, the two chief articles that guard against the malign influence of the evil eye are iron articles and articles of a black colour.12 In Eastern India, the performer of funeral rites touches cold iron to guard himself against any evil spirits he may have dislodged from the dead body.13 In Gujarat, when a spirit refuses to leave the body of a possessed man, the exorcist catches the patient's hair, buffets him or beats him with an iron rod.14 To guard against a return of spirit possession a Gujarat Hindu wears an iron wristlet.15 In North India, a piece of iron is tied to the wrist or to the ankle to keep off the Evil Eye.16 The door and the furniture of the Parsi lying-in room are of iron. In A. D. 570, when Zemarchus, the Byzantine ambassador, came near the camp of the Great Khân, he was met by Turks offering a piece of iron. They rang a bell, beat a drum, burned incense, and raged like maniacs driving off evil spirits. The dress of the Siberian mediums or shámáns described by Girchino was for the men on each shoulder two pointed iron horns, with iron rings, & saw-toothed plate of iron, and hanging Chinese locks. The women's dress was taselled with iron discs and a rusty iron lock hung from a braid of hair.19 When the Roumanian of South-East Austria hears the first thunder of the season, he knocks his head with a piece of iron and is free from headaches for the rest of the year 20 In Germany and in England, in the seventeenth century, during thunderstorm, iron or steel was laid on a beer barrel to keep the beer from turning sour,al The Middle Age Germans held that a were-wolf could be turned into a man by crossing its path with a knife, a sword, or a ploughshare,22 the sense being that the sight of the iron scared the evil spirit out of the man who, without the inspiration of the evil spirit, fell back into the true likeness of a man. The Arab's shout, “Hadid, Hadid (Iron, Iron)," when he sees a spirit-ridden whirlwind, is oddly the same as the Scottish fisherman's shoat, "Cauld Airan," if, as they are putting out to fish, 23 any of their number mentions an unlucky word, brags of his riches, of his wife's looks, or of his last take of fish, or takes God's name in vain. In both cases the sense is that the evil is turned aside by naming or touching the great scarer cold iron. The object of the Estonian custom of biting at cold iron before eating the first 18 The late Mr. Vaikuntram's MS. Notes.
13 Elworthy's The Evil Eye, p. 223. 14 The late Mr. Vaikuntram's MS. Notes.
15 Op. cit. 16 Folk-Lore Record, Vol. IV., p. 136.
17 MS. Notes on Pirst Customs. 15 Yale's Cathay, Vol. I., P. CLXIII.
19 Howorth's Changiz Khan, P. 116. 20 Nineteenth Century Magazine, No. 100, p. 136. 11 Aubrey's Remains of Gentilim, p. 22. 11 Moncure Conway's Demonology and Devil.Lore, Vol. I. p. 314.
25 Guthrie's Old Scottish Customs, p. 149, and NS. Dote from Mr. James Douglas of Bombay, dated 6th December, 1895.