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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1899.
liquor are most liable to the attacks of a girl. Health-drinking is indispensable at all feasts. The host drinks to the health of the guests, while the guests drink to that of the host. At a wedding-dinner, the toasts are drunk generally in the following order — the bride and the bridegroom, the parents of the bride and bridegroom, blood relations of the bride and bridegroom such as brothers and sisters and maternal uncles and aunts, then other relations and friends. At christenings, the first toast is that of the new-born, next the sponsors, then the parents of the child, followed by other relations and friends. The custom of health-drinking is also practised at reals after a funeral :- the first toast is that of the chief mourner, with the addition of a few consolatory words; then the toast of all others present, generally proposed by the chiei mourner, when he or she takes the opportunity of thanking one and all for the trouble taken by them in attending the funeral. Among the Christian bhandarís, on the wedding-day, the bridegroom has to give a pot of liquor to the bride's father. Some persons, at the time of arranging a bethrotal, exchange liquor, that is, the girl's party offers liquor to the party of the boy, and then the boy's party offers some to that of the girl. Wounds are sometimes washed with liquor. In cases of indigestion, liquor is given to drink hot with pepper, garlic and salt, Liquor is sometimes offered to the spirits of the dead. The evils of drinking liquor is graphically described in the following phrase "dárú ani ghar där bári, liquor and (the) sweeper of house and door "--that is, because of the vice of drunkenness, a house is swept of all its possessions ; in other words, poverty is brought on through drink,
Light. - " Ojér hái té Lakshimi hái, light is Lakshmi" that is, the bringer of good fortune. A light is kept burning all night, for several months, in the lying-in room. When a person is suffering from small-pox, an arti is performed, in which a lamp is lit with seven wicks. On the day of a christening, the godmother, when she returns from the Church with the baptised child, steps over a fire in which some incense is thrown. A light is kept burning at the head of the dead.
Noise and Music. - Noise and music are believed to restore to consciousness or life one who is in a swoon or trance. During a recent outbreak of small-fox in Bândra I observed a great noise being made in a house in which a boy was attacked by the small-pox by playing on the rabán (a tambourine) and the ghimdt (a kind of musical drum) and the persons singing at the top of their voice. On enquiry I was told that the boy (or rather his soul) had gone ( ? was carried off by the Bâyâ) to the Konkan, the supposed permanent residence of the Bâyâ or Mâulia (small-pox mothers), and that the noise was made to bring him back. On another occasion noise and music were resorted to to drown the sound. of the chanting of the Responsorios sung in a funeral procession. It is dangerous for a small-pox patient to hear the Responsorios or even funeral music. So also when cholera broke out many persons fired guns. Gans were also fired in the nights during the time the plague was raging. At a weddingdinner, when toasts are drunk, guns or crackers are fired, and music is sometimes played, or some person sings a song in the absence of music. Marriage songs are sung on the day of the declaration of the first bann, about twenty-one days before the wedding, and these are repeated every evening till three or four days after the wedding. Songs are sung when the dough for órá or sándnar is prepared ; songs are sung when the shaving of the bridegroom and other guests is going on on the evening previous to the wedding-day ; songs are sung when wonen and even men go to fetch water for the bride or bridegroom to bathe with, also on the evening of the day previous to the wedding ; songs are sung when cocoanut milk (sometimes mixed with saffron powder) is rubled on the bride or bridegroom before bathing on the morning of the wedding-day ; songs are sung when the bride or bridegroom is dressing to go to Church ; songs are sung on return of the bride and bridegroom from Church. Singing is also done on Christening and festival days. In drinking healths, people sometimes shout out "viva !"
Mirror. - Children are not allowed to look into a mirror, as it is not good for them to see their own reflections. No reason is assigned for this.
Oil - Oil is used both as food and medicine. It is also a giver of light. Rubbing with oil prevents cramps and rheumatism (várá or wind). In cases of jaundice, after branding with a red-bot wire of iron, castor oil is applied to the part burned. Oil is used at time of child-birth. After child
