Indian Antiquary Vol 25

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

Page 85

MARCA, 1896.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
79
mirror any evil spirit which might lodge in her. Another Sati is described as walking with a cocoanut in her right hand and a knife and mirror in her left.66 The object in this case is the Bame as in the last. Among American Indians, during the Elk Mysteries, the performers wore pieces of mirror.66 In the Eleusian mysteries and in processions in honour of Bacchus a mirror was carried.57 A mirror is considered an emblem of the soul in Japan and a deity in the Arabian Nights.58 Many English regard a'mirror with reverence. The breaking of a mirror is unlacky.se In Spain, fragments of mirror were formerly worn to keep off evil spirits.60 The Croatian peasant, doubtless originally with the same object, wears little mirrors fastened to her neck. The use of the mirror necklace, like the use of the early skull or later precious stone necklace, is to house or soare evil influences. According to an English saying no child should be allowed to look into a mirror till he is .year old, since the life or soul of the child is not yet firmly 6xed in the child, and might pass from the child's body into the mirror. Similarly, mirrors in a sick room should be covered, since in sickness the soul is specially apt to leave the body. And a mirror should be covered in a room where a corpse is lying, lest the dead should pass into the mirror and haunt the house. For seven days, after a Jewish funeral, all mirrors are covered.96 That the object is to prevent the dead haunting the mirror is in agreement with the Jewish rule against women and priests attending funerals.
Oil.-I8 & medicine. Oil heals wounds; and, rabbed over the body, relieves cramps, seizures, and weariness. Oil is also both food and drink: it is a giver of light and a giver of heat. For all these reasons few spirit-scarers are either so powerful or so popular as oil.
The healing virtue of oil is recognised by Hindu physicians, who hold that anointing the head, ears and feet prevents cramp and headache, and increases happiness, sleep, life, strength and good fortune. Sesamum seed and sesamam oil are a specific for keeping off ovil spirits.67 In Western India, before their wedding, the Hindu bride and bridegroom are generally rubbed with oil and turmeric. Among the Dekhan Chitpavans, if a woman suffers greatly in child. birth, oil, in which durva or bent grass (Cynodon dactylon) has been dipped and over which charms have been said, is given her to drink and is rubbed over her body,69 The Chitpåvan boy, before the thread-girding is rubbed with oil and sweet scents.co The PAbadis, a class of Poona Marath& husbandmen, call the washerman to sprinkle the bridegroom with oil.70 The Raddis, & Telugu class in Poona, anoint the bride and bridegroom with sweet oil.71 The Baris, a class of Poona husband men, on the tenth day after a death, dip a flower in clarified butter and draw it from the shoulder to the elbow of the men who carried the bier. They call this ceremony, ichdndé utarné, or shoulder-tessening, that is, apparently, the removal of the uncleanliness, that is, of the unclean spirit which entered into the bearers' shoulders when they were carrying the bier.72 The Kirâds, a middle class Upper Indian caste in Poona, at their marriages, anoint the bride and bridegroom from head to foot.7 Among the Uchlias or pick-pockets of Poona, for five days after child-birth, the midwife rubs the mother and child with turmeric, oil and cocoa kernel.74 Among Kônkan Maråthås the opening or the crown of the head of a new-born babe is kept soaked with oil till the covering hardens.76 Sholapur Komtis rab the corpse's head with butter, and Sholapur Mudliars anoint the dead body.78 Among Bijapur Bedars the new-born child is rubbed with oil for five days after birth.77 When a Pârsi
* Percy Anecdotes, Vol. IV. P: 893.
06 Emerson's Masks, Head and Faces, P: 280, 57 De la Valle's Travels, Hakluyt Edition, Vol. II: p. 266, n. 1. * Op. cit.
ooOp. cit.; Wagner's Monners, p. 88. Dalyell's Darker Superstitions of Scotlandy p. 149:61 Unonown Hungary, Vol. I. p. 145.
The Denham Tracte, Vol. II. p. 48. * Fracor's The Golden Bough, Vol. I. p. 147.
The Dortham Tracta, Vài. Il. p. 73. • Wagner's Manners, pp. 122, 123. 68 Wise's Hindu Medicine, p. 93. 01 Dubois, Vol. I. p. 204. # Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 112.
6 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 117. To Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 812.
71 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 405. 71 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII. p. 288.
T5 Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 269. ** Op. cit. Vol. XVIII. p. 470.
16 Information from the peon Babaji. 70 Bombay Gamotteer, Vol. XX, pp. 47,78.
11 Op. cit. Vol. XXIIL P.. 94/