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302
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(NOVEMBER, 1897.
spirits, whom they termed Brownics, who went about at night and performed for them some part of their domestic labour, such as threshing and winnowir; their corn, spinning, and churning, They fixed branches of the mountain ash or the narrow-leaved service tree above the stalls of their cattle to preserve them from the evil effects of elves and witches. In the Highlands of Scotland, there was a Inke called Lochn-an-Spoiradan, the Loch of Spirits. In the lake two spirits frequently made their appearance - the horse and the water-bull. The mermaid was apother spirit. Before the rivers were swelled by heavy rains she was often seen, and was considered a fore-sight of drowning. Celtic mythology added a fourth spirit. When water is agitated by violent currents of wind, and spray is swept from its surface and driven before the blast, or whirled in circling eddies high in the air, the people consider the spindrift the child of the angry blast and call it Mariach Shine, the Kider of the Storm. Suffolk people believe in mermaids who live in ponds, and mothers use the name mermaid to frighten their children. Waldron heard the following mermaid story from an Isle of Man fisherman : -"During the time that Oliver Cromwell usurped the governinent of England few ships resorted to this island, which gave the mermen and mermaids frequent opportunities of visiting the shore. On moonlight nights they have been seen combing their hair, but as soon as any one came near they jumped into the water. Some people, who lived near the shore, spread nets and watched for their approach, only one was taken, who proved to be a female. She was very lovely; above the waist she resembled a fine young woman, and below all was fish with fins and a spreading tail. She was carried to a house and used tenderly; but, although they set before her the best of provisions, she could not be prevailed on to eat or drink, neither could they get a word from her. They kept her three days; but, perceiving that she began to look very ill and fearing that some calamity would befall the island if they kept her till she died, they opened the door, when she raised lierself on her tail and glided with incredible swiftness to the sea-side. Her keeper followed her at a distance, and saw her plunge into the water. It is customary in Yorkshire for people to sit and watch in the church porch on St. Mark's Eve, April 25th, from eleven o'clock at night till one in the morning. The third year (for this watch must be kept thrice) the watchers are supposed to see the ghosts of all who are to die the next year pass into the church, infants and young children not able to walk roll along the pavement.10 In 1800, Sir Walter Scott noticed that the belief in spirits who inhabited the air and the water was still general in Scotland. In England, the Gypsies keep alive the belief in spirit swarms. Gipsy boys at dawn see little men and carriages sitting in oak branches, beautifully dressed in green, white and other colours.13
In connection with the numbers and swarms of spirits it is to be noted that instead of the six or seven spirits which in modern Europe are supposed to lodge in the human body, namely, life, wind, soul, spirit, conscience, genius, and heredity, acccrding to earlier ideas, spirits or at least the greater spirits include swarms of distinct beings. The experience of conscience, or the voice of conscience, has been accepted as one of the strongest grounds for believing in more than one indwelling spirit. The Christian poet, Herrick (1660, Poems, Ed. 1869, Vol. I. p. 159), makes conscience a God in man, agreeing with the saying in the Emperor Akbar's (A.D.1600) religion :"Deep in our soul lives the true agent God without equal who raises a stormy strife to stir us to the search of truth."13 The Arab who has heard the voice describes it as the voice of Hatif the crier, a species of jinn. The Hindu has a strong sense of the divisibility of spirit.15
* Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I. p. xvi.
7 Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 377. • Chamber's Book of Lays, p. 678.
Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 413. 10 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 198.
11 Note M to Lay of the Last Minstrel. 12 Groome's In Gipsy Tonts, p. 256.
13 Tabistan, Vol. III. p. 130. 14 Arabian Life in the Middle Ages, p. 45.
16 This law is not so clear to the fishery of Nairne in Scotland, who (Guthrie's Old Scotch Customs, p. 96) object to more than one couple being married at the same time, as there would be a struggle who would be first to leave • tho church, because the first to leave would carry a way the blessing.
