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196
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1897.
On a future occasion circa mstances similar to the above brought the king to the same Bugar-cane field in the forest. He asked his old acquaintance for a drink. The obliging woman pierced with thorns ten sugar-canes, but all to no purpose ; for not one yielded any juico. Tho king asked of the cause of this. “Ah!" exclaimed the old woman, "do you not know it? This is caused by the perfidy of the king, for his mean heart has made the soil to lose its fertility."
NOTES AND QUERIES. AN INSTANCE OF THE POWER OF INDIAN | city for holding water thus increased. This is VILLAGERS TO COMBINE FOR THE
interesting as a simple example of the power of a COMMON GOOD..
village community to combine in a sustained The other day, in visiting an Ahir village in the course of action for the common good. Gurgaon district, I had occasion to pass through
J. WILSON, in P. N. and Q. 1883. the dry bed of the village pond, accompanied by Beveral of the villagers, and noticed that each
AN ORDEAL. man, as he passed along, stooped down to pick up
A WRITER in Blackwood's Magazine (June 1883), a clod of earth, which he carried to the margin of
reviewing Fitzjames Stephen's History of English the pond and threw down outside. On enquiring
Criminal Law, says :-"In the 23rd Canto of Il the reason of this, I was told that it was a rule in
Purgatório Danto writes:-chi n'ha colpa ereda the villago, that no inhabitant should pass through
che vendetta di Dio non teme suppe,'in allusion to the bed of the pond without doing a little in this
an old superstition, acoording to which it will way to deepen it, and clear it of the sediment
believed thnt if the murdorer ate a sop of bread that is washed into it every year in the rainy
and wine on the grave of his (supposed P) season.
victim within nine days of the murder, the In the Sirsa District, where owing to the great
right of vengeance was forfeited. To guard depth of the wells and the general brackishness of
this right the relations of the murdered man the water in them, the pond is more important
watch bis tomb to prevent the ceremony from than usual to the comfort of the village, it is
being accomplished." very common to find that a man is told off daily by rotation, among the different families of the
This method of avoiding a blood-feud was village, whose daty it is to be present at the pond
na evidently of the nature of an ordeal, it being in the morning when the women come to get
assumed that if the man was the real murderer their daily supply of water for household pur
and had killed the deceased worngfully the poses. He is provided with a spade and a basket
Bop would choke him. The collooation of bread or two, and before a woman is allowed to fill her
and wine is apparently connected with Holy Comjars with water from the pond, she must carry
munion. Does any similar method of purging out a basketful of earth excavated by the man on
one's self by ordeal from the aocusation of blood. duty from the bed of the pond and throw it down
guiltiness, and so avoiding a blood-feud, exist outside. As this process goes on every day the
among the races of our frontier P pond is deopened by slow degrees, and its capa. DEUXIL IBBETSON, in P. N. and Q. 1883,
BOOK-NOTICE, THE SIDDHANTA DEEPIKA.
great wealth of Tamil Literature, if it continues T#LIONT OF TRUTH OR SIDDHANTA DEEPIKA,
as it has begun, by giving the texts with render. Monthly Journal devoted to Religion, Philosophy, ings of the greater specimens thereof. It is of Literntare, Science, etc. Madran, C. N. Press,4, value, for instance, to have a reproduction of such Guravappen Street, Black Town. Nos. 1 and 2. texts as the Sirañana Siddhiyar of Aru! Nandi
We must express our pleasnre at the appearance Sivacharya, even though the transliterations of of this Magazine, though it is, perbapa, some! the vernacular words are unsteady and not always what too much imbued with the perfervidum correct. ingenium that distinguishes the Dravidian We note also a memorandum by the veteran populations to altogether please the more Tamil scholar, Dr. G. U. Pore, on the Tirura. phlegmatic Englishman. But its aim is high chakam of Manika Váchakar, and an advertise. und its tone elevating, and there is no doubt ment stating that he will publish an Edition of it that it will do a great deal towards making better in full, if funds are forthcoming. Let us hope known, to the literary world at any rate, the that they will be forthcoming.
