________________
JUNE, 1898.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
163
the Ratnagiri Marathis at their wedding, when the lucky moment comes, the priest shouts 4 take care," the guests clap hands, and when the people outside hear the clapping they fire guns. The reason why they fire guns is to keep off Kål. If they did not frighten Kal he would seize the bride and bridegroom, or their fathers and mothers. Wboever Kal seizes falls senseless or in a fit.74 The MÂngellas, Phudgis and Vadvals of Thâşâ have a strong belief that at the lacky moment the bride and bridegroom or their parents are likely to be attacked by spirits, and especially among the Mângellas frequent cases occur in which the bridegroom or his father or mother get possessed, or fall in a fit just when the lucky moment comes.76 To this day the Swedish bridegroom has a great fear of the trolls and spirits which inhabit Sweden. As an antidote he sews into his clothes strong smelling herbs, such as garlic, cloves, and rosemary, and the young women carry boughs of these, and deck themselves with loads of jewellery, gold bells and grelots as large as apples.76 Coming of age and pregnancy are also times at which spirits attack men. At her coming of age the Chitpåvan girl is treated with special care. She is seated in a wooden frame with lamps on either side, is decorated with flowers and ornaments, and is feasted with rich dishes. A Chitpâvan girl who is pregnant is not allowed to let her hair fall loose, or to go out of doors, or to sit under a tree, or to ride on a horse or an elephant.77 The Hottentots make their boys men at a feast, where oxen and sheep are slaughtered.78 Among the New Caledonians a girl's first monthly sickness is much feared; when the first periodical sickness comes on, the girls are fed by their mothers or nearest female relations, and on no account will they touch their food with their own hands. They are at this time also careful not to touch their heads, and keep a small stick to scratch their heads with. They remain outside the lodge all the time they are in this state, in a hut made for the purpose. During all this period they wear a skull-cap made of skin ; this is never taken off until their first monthly sickness ceases; they also wear a strip of black paint, about one inch wide, across their eyes, and hang a fringe of shells and bones. Their reason for hanging fringes before their eyes is to hinder any bad medicine man harming them doring this critical period.19 In building or entering a new house or church there is a danger of spirits attacking the enterer ; so the Hindas perform a ceremony, called rusti shanti or quieting of the spirit Vastu, before coming to live in a newly built house. The first person who enters a new church in Germany becomes the property of the devil. So they send in a pig or a dog.80
Among Hindus, at the beginning of any work, Ganpati, the lord of the ganas or troops is invoked, and some propitiatory rites are performed. All beginnings are special spirit-times. So Hindus take care to wear new clothes on a lucky day, and when they wear a new cloth they apply a little red powder to its edges, and sometimes offer a few threads from the clothes to their family god.81 In Belgaum, whee a Chitpåvan gets a new waist cloth before he puts it on he rubs turmeric and red powder on the corners. He then folds it, and lays it before the house gods, praying them to give bim a better one next year. He finally lays it across a horse's back before he puts it on. 3 Dharwar Madhva Brahmaņs, especially the women, will not take a new robe as a present unless the giver marks it with red powder.83 In Scotland, when a child wears now clothes for the first time, other children or the elders of the house pinch him, giving him what is called a tailor's nip. "A nip for new, a bite for blue" is a Durham rhyme for wearing new clothes. Originally, at the time of wearing a new coat, a glass of liquor was given, and if the wearer refused, a button was cut off. On the Scottish borders people never put on a new coat without putting money in the right pocket. 85
54 Information from peon Babaji. 16 Chambers's Book of Days, p. 720. * Hahn's Truni Goam, p. 52. # Henderson's Folk-Lore, p. 121. * Information from Mr. Kalyanray.
Henderson's Folk-Lore, p. 119.
75 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi, 17 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XVIII., Part I., p. 144. ** Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. VII. pp. 203, 207. 51 Information from Mr. P. B. Joshi. 83 Information from Mr. Tirmalrio. * Op. cit. p. 119.
