Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 26

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1898.
NOTES ON THE SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM. BY SIR J. M. CAMPBELL, K.C.I.E., I.C.S.
(Continued from Vol. XXVI. p. 804.)
1. The Features, Character, and Mode of Living of Spirits.
In Western India, most spirits are believed to have their legs turned back or crooked, their hair loose, and in some cases on end. Many are lean and ugly, and many are supposed to be green or, like English fairies, to wear green. Some are white, like Muñja, the spirit of a Brahman lad, and a few are black, like Kifri, the spirit of a murdered negro. Vêtal, the chief of spirits, is green, and rides a green horse. The Konkan fernale spirit Hêdali wears a yellow robe and bodice, and lets her hair fall loose. The water-spirit Girà has his legs turned back, and the hair of his head is on end. In Bengal, Churail, the spirit of a woman who has died in child-bed, is fair in front and black behind; and her feet are turned back, The Pârsis have spirits whose features are half like a man's half reversed,26 According to Henderson,27 the English spirit Brownie was half spirit half man. English, mermaids, or water-spirits, were women above the waist, and below the waist fish with fins and a sp reading tail.29
The general character of spirits is supposed to be evil; bhuts are spirits who are almost always bent on mischief. Satara (Western India) Mhârs say that all who die accidental or sudden deaths with unfulfilled wishes come back and plague men and cattle. Still, all spirits are not inischievous, and some of them, like Vêtal, Brahmâpurush, and Chêdâ, if pleased or propitiated, are believed to be of great help to their worshippers. Vêtâl is said to shew his devotees hidden treasure, and to supply their wants.
The belief in the complete or in the partial good-will of spirits is widespread. Up to the eighteenth century the belief in a kindly helpful spirit called Brownie was common in the British Islands. About 1600, James I., in his Demonology, describes Brownie as a rough man who haunted houses without doing evil. Some, he adds, were so blinded as to think Brownie made their house all the sonsier, that is, fatter or more prosperous. In 1690, the traveller Martin says, in the Shetland isles every family of consequence has its Brownie. Milk and water are poured to Brownie through a holed stone. Brownie used to be seen as a tall man. Since 1640 sights of him had become rare.29 In his Journey to the Western Islands, Dr. Johnson (A. D. 1773)
23 Of the character and features of German spirits Grimm says:- They have in them some admixture of the superhuman, which approximates them to gods; they have power to hurt man and to help him, at the same time they stand in awe of man, being no match for him in bodily strength. Their figure is much below the stature of man, or else mis-shapen. They almost all have the faculty of making themselves invisible. The females are of a broader and nobler east, with attributes resembling those of goddesses and wise women; the male spirits are more" distinctly mark ed off both from gods and heroes (Teutonic Mythology, Vol. II. p. 439). English fairies are said (Kirk in Napier's Folk-Lo re, p. 20; Dalyell's Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 535) to be astral spirits between angels and humans. In looks and ways they are like tiny men and women. They are merry, and dance decked in green. They marry, have children, and die; they can be visible or invisible at pleasure; they live in the ground and unseen; they constantly wait on meu; they are fond of human children, and carry them away, and sometimes women. They milk cattle, and shoot people with flint-head arrows, of which at the same time fairies themselves stand in awe. According to Sir Walter Scott (Demonology and Witchcraft, pp. 180, 452; Border Minstrelsy, p. 461), English Woodland spirits are kindly but mischievous. Scottish Moorland spirits are fierce; and Highland spirits are peevish and envious. As to their appearance Reginald Scott (1580), Discovery of Witchcraft, p. 426, complains that some sixteenth century English writers are so carnally minded that if a spirit is spoken of they think of a black man with cloven feet, horns, tail, claws, and eyes as broad as a bason. The Ceylon evil spirit is black-skinned, large-eyed and long-tusked; some of them wear colours (Journal, Ceylon Asiatic Society, 1865, p. 16). They have the worst wishes to men, and can be forced or tempted to do what any one wishes who has a charm over them (op. cit. p. 8).
24 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 479.
20 Bleek's Vendidad, p. 81. 27 Folk-Lore, p. 246.
25 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 258. 28 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 413.
29 Quoted in Hone's Year Book, p. 1533. Compare Dalyell (Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 530). Brownie is a house-spirit who did much work, Food and milk were set apart for him. The Reformation chained him up. Brownie's Gaelic name was Gruagach (Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, Vol. VIII. p. 500).