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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1898.
head or rend his clothes, The Ainos, an early tribe of North Japan, before drinking, throw liquor on their heads.65 A mong the Tahkalis the priest lays his hand on the child whose father is dead, and blows into him the dead soul. It comes to life in the next child.66 At a Mexican birth the crown of the child's head is touched with water.07 When Numa Pompilios was made king of Rome (B. C. 714) the augur placed his right hand on the king's head and invoked the protection of Jupiter on Rome and on the king. The cross was originally worn by the Christians on the forehead.60 The laying of hands on the heads by the elders is to wish yood, that is, to scare evil. Compare Odin, when he sent people to war, laying his hands on their heads and blessing them. After confession in a Russian church, the penitent prostrates and the priest lays his hand on the penitent's head.71 A Russian woman should not leave her head uncovered. Married women in Russia always wear a cap at dinner.72 Spirits enter through the head, and so in the scape-goat tbe priest lays his hands on the head of the goat, and the sins of the people pass into it. So Aaron put both hands on the scape-goat's head.73 In England (1620), as a cure for sadness, the devil-disease, it is not amiss to bore the skull with an instrument to let out the fuluginous vapours.74
(To be continued.) .
NOTES AND QUERIES. PANJABI NICKNAMES.
A NOTE ON MUSALMAN TOMBS. I VENTURY to think that & dissertation on, or There is no distinction between the tombs esamples of the nicknames of the Panjab of men and women in the Jhelsm District. would be extremely interesting. The Panjabi Panjab, excepting among the Awân villages of is a jocular person, and is therefore ready the Talagang tahsil to the west of it. ut nicknaming. Many European officials, most
All the graves there have a vertical slab at native officials, and nearly all villagers, have
either end. A woman's grave can be at once to suffer under the burden of nickname,
distinguished by the presence of a third slab in whether they will or no. Some nicknames are
the centre, smaller than the head and foot stones. merely descriptions of physical or mental pecu.
Men's graves have no central vertical slab. liarities, such as Râm Singh Lamba - the long (tall) Ram Singh ; Bhora, the auburn one;
J. Parsons in P. N. and Q. 1889. Mussamat Ganjl, Mrs. Scaldhead; Gangi, the dumb one; Gadhå Singh or Bola Singh, the silly one.
PICTURES ON MUSALMAN TOMBS. Again. a tall man with a large head and a Ar the village of KhAngh Dågrån (Gdjranwald renchant for preposterously large turbans, received District) are the tombs of certain Musalman the nickname of Kumbh Karan. Any one who at saints. These tombs are ornamented with the Dasahrá festival has seen this hero's effigy at pictures of birds and other animals, thongh the Ram Lill sacred drama, will appreciate the such representations are contrary to the Muhamwit of this name.
mudan religion. The village is composed mainly Another case is that of a native who, going out of Muhammadans, though there are four Hindu to shoot a tiger, and promptly and, I think, very families. I was told that none of the inhabit. sensibly running away, received the title of ants ever slept in beds, but on the ground, ont Shërmar, or the tiger-Blayer. Very many more of respect to the memory of the saints who instances might, I think, be cited.'
practised similar austerities. M. MILLETT in P. N. and Q. 1883.
R. W. TRAFFORD in P. N. and Q. 1883. 4 Leviticus, xxi. 10.
66 St. John's Nipon, p. 20. 66 Spencer's Princiyles of Sociology, p. 256.
67 Bancroft, Vol. III. p. 372. 68 Jopes' Croicns, p. 384.
6 Gibbon's Decline and Hall, Vos. V. p. 865. 70 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. I. p. 188. 71 Mrs. Romanoff's Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russion Church, p. 130. 11 Op. cit. p. 208.
* Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 247. " Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 450. 1 [An examination of the Censos Tables of 1881 will shew that such dames as Perti, Lamba, Bhora, Ganji, Gungt, Gadhs, and Pípf Singh, are by no means pecessarily nicknames, though they undoubtedly are so in some CENES. Real nicknames in the Panjib would, however, form . very interesting subject of study, and it is hoped that more notes on it wil be forthcoming in these pages. - FO.]
