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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1897.
the spirit was loosened.45 In Gigha in Argyleshire in West Scotland, if a wind was wished, a sacred well was cleared of stones, and the water was thrown in the direction from which the wind was wished. Some words were said and the stones filled in. If the well had been left open there would have been a storm.48 The question, whether the Almighty or any guardian. can be made responsible for the weather, has always been a subject for dispute. The halfgnostic Christian sect of Priscillianists (Spain, A. D. 350) ascribed storms to the devil, thunder to his roaring, and rain to his sweat. The Manicheans (A. D. 300), many of whose opinions Priscillianus adopted, said thunderstorms were the rage of a chained devil. When a thunderstorm came the classic Greeks offered a black lamp, as storms were reckoned among the gods of the lower world.48 In Germany, Wustan's furious host was the storm wind. According to the Celts storms were stirred by the fays or fates, and according to the Swedes by the woodwife Skegora.50 Kali, the black cloud-bome of the Goddess of ruin, is the Hindu name for the blue-black almost violet cloud mass that hides the heavens before or after a thunderstorm.
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More than the life of the breeze or the rage of the storm the strange and fantastic movements of the whirl-wind have carried conviction that the mighty shape is the form of a fiend. In old German, the whirlwind was known as wind's braut, the wind's bride. According to the Slay and the Pole an evil spirit dancing stirs the dust into a whirlwind.51 In France, the belief prevails that whirlwinds are caused by witches and wizards who travel in them. In the department of Orne the clergy cause storms and sweep on in the wind gusts. A man shot at a hailstorm and lamed a priest.53 In Germany, the devil is believed to be seated at the centre of every whirlwind.53 When Arabs see Zobsale, the Pillar of Dust, sweep across the desert, they call:-"Iron, Iron, thou unlucky," thus scaring the dust pillar, who stands in awe even of the name of iron. In India, in ordinary talk, a dust storm is a satan or devil.
The breeze is a guardian. If unchecked it would flow so as to favour its worshippers. A calm is evil. A calm is the guardian overpowered and quenched by an unfriendly spirit.. In the west of Scotland (1885), when the wind is unfavourable, sailors whistle or kill a pig and point its head in the direction of the wished-for wind.55 The Italian traveller Nicolo Conti (1420-24) commanded a ship in the Indian seas. They were becalmed seven days; on the eighth, the sailors who were Arabs brought a table to the mast, performed rites and danced round the table and called on Mathia, their God. One of them became possessed with a demon and began to sing and run about the ship as if mad. He came to the table, ate some live coal, and called for a cock and sucked its blood. He asked the sailors what they wanted. The sailors said: "We want a wind." He told them the wind would come and warned them to take care. He fell half dead on the deck. When he came to his senses he had forgotten all he had done and said. The wind sprang up and they got to port.56 Not every calm is devil caused. Sleep is the air-walking Willie Winkie, Death's twin brother, the ghostly and guardian power that calms the stormiest.
In the Konkan, the chief-air-spirits are (1) the Sâtkuvaris or Seven Maidens, and their male companion Gôvalâ Dâdâ or Father Cowherd, (2) Vija or lightning, and (3) Epidemics.
46 Guthrie's Old Scottish Customs, p. 169.
48 Eber's Egyptian Princess, Vol. II. p. 229. 50 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 682.
45 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 610.
47 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 1000. 49 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. II. p. 632. 51 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. II. p. 632. st Conway's Demonology and Devil Lore, Vol. I. p. 105.
of wizards, that is, of people endowed with a spirit specially 53 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 106.
55 MS. note, 26th August 1885.
66 Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, Vol. III. p. 26. The sense seems to be - God's wind is stopped by the devil's wind. The men dance till excited. The spirit of the hostile wind enters one of them, drinks the blood, is content and lets God's wind blow.
These doings of priests belong to them in their character powerful both for good and for evil.
84 Lane Poole's Arabian Society in the Middle Ages, p. 37.
