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JUNE, 1898.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
155
belief that an unborn child gives its mother much trouble and pain when its hair begins to bud forth. The hair of Rassian priests is cut cro88-wise in four places when he is ordained. In Scotland, when horses are taken out of the stable by witches, and ridden at night, next morning their manes and tails are dishevelled and tangled.10 In North England, there was a belief that, when a child is suffering from whooping cough, its head should be shaved, and the birds take the hair and the cough. So mix your hair with an ass's or dog's food, and yon will pass him your scarlet fever.11 Sir W. Scott, in his Luys of the Last Minstrel, Vol. II. p. 17, says: -
" Yet somewhat was he chilled with dread,
And his hair did bristle upon his head." Spirits enter into the body through the hair, and bring on sickness. So in England, there was a belief or saying: -"You can be cured of ague by winding some hair round a pin and driving it into an aspen stem,"13 The king of England ?) after anointing should have his hair combed with an ivory or gold comb if the hair is not smooth.13 In England, a nurse sometimes cuts some hair of a child's head who is sick with measles and whooping cough. She puts the hair between bread and butter, and leaves it for a dog to eat. The dog eats it, and gets the measles.24 In Ireland, the hair is cut off a person's head who is sick of scarlet fever, and is put down an ans's mouth.15 It is considered fatal in England if human hair is taken and worked by a bird into its nest. Two girls sit up silent, each takes as many bairs out of her head as she is year's old, And having put them in a cloth with the herb called true love, she burns each hair separately, and says : -" I offer this my sacrifice to him most precious in my eyes. I charge thee now come forth to me that I this minute may thee see.” The shape appears, and walks round the
room.17
The Mouth. - On three occasions there is a special risk that spirits will pass into the body through the inouth - in eating, in sneezing, and in yawning. Perhaps because spirits enter through the mouth while eating, the higher class Hindus before beginning to eat make & circle of water round their dish, and sip & little water, repeating some verses.18 So orthodox Lingayats do nob like to take their meals in an open place, lest they may be affected by the Evil Eye.19 Sometimes pious Hindu women during the four months of the dakshindyan, that is, from mid-June to the middle of September when the doors of heaven are closed and the influence of spirits is great, - make a vow of observing silence át meals.20 In Kinara, at a Roman Catholic Baptism, the priest breathes three times into the child's month to drive away evil spirits, and to make room for the Holy Ghost.21 In South India, (some) Brâhmans eat in silence.23 Barton (1621 A. D.) 23 notices two cases - one of a nun, who ate a lettuce without saying grace or making the sign of the cross, and was instantly possessed, and the other of a wench who was possessed by eating an unhallowed pomegranate. The Greek and Roman offerings of meat and drink before or after meat, and the English leaving part of a dish for Lady Manners, were dae, perhaps, to the belief that spirits enter at food-time through the mouth; and so the Roman Catholio practice of making the sign of the cross before eating and the Protestant rule of grace before meat, may be attributed to the 84.me belief,
Sneezing. The convulsion of sneezing is generally thought to be caused by a spirit. According to one belief it is caused by a spirit going out, and according to another belief by a spirit coming in. Among Konkân Hindus, when a man sneezes, it is customary to say shatam
* Op. cit. Book vii.. Chap. 6.
Mrs. Romanoff'. Rites and Customs of the Graeco-Russian Church, p. 58. 10 Scott's Border Minstrelay, p. 482.
11 Henderson's Folk-Lore, p. 14. 13 Op. cit. p. 151.
18 Jones' Crowns, p. 291. 16 Dyer's Folk-Lore, p. 168.
18 Op. cit. p. 170. 16 Op. cit. p. 276.
17 Op. cit. p. 186. 18 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi.
» Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. 20 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi
31 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. X. p. 388. 22 Duboir, Vol. I. p. 249.
23 Barton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 180,
