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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
NOVEMBER, 1899.
king. The king sent luma bumble letter, requesting him to come. The boy replied :-"Puta saddle on the back of your minister and send him to me"
So the boy mounted the minister's back, and made him carry him to the king. He expounded the dream and demanded the throne of his father. The nobles expelled the traitor, and acknowledged the boy as their king. A few days afterwards, the new king convened an assembly, and with tears narrated his and bis father's fate. All cried out:-"Let the traitor be burnt to death." This the executioners did ; and the people lauded the king and the gardener. Till his death the gardener remained a faithful minister to the king.
NOTES AND QUERIES. SUPERSTITIONS AMONG HINDUS IN
Once upon a time, a king was invited by an THE CENTRAL PROVINCES.
ascetic, who having prepared food by the power A blow from broom, at the time of of his prayers und Bunctity, served it in the leaf. sweeping specially if struck by a woman,' Vessel; and fucing towards his hut be made a makes one as thin is a lamp-pust; to avoid this, prayer to all the guds for a mileb.cow, which they a twig of the broom is broken and waved throu immedintely supplied. He milked two bowls of times round the head, after spitting on it.
milk, and brought it to the king to use instead When a mortar or a pestle is worn out by incessant usuge, the owner of it, choosing a
ge. the owner of it, choosing a The king remarked the wonderful proceedings Ineky morning, pays homage after bis ancestral of the ascetic; and, after finishing dinner, with fashion and takes it to a running stream or to a joined hands said: - "Ascetic, an invitation neighbouring well, to get rid of it, by throwing without contentment to the heart is to no purit away. It is notable that, if, by chance, it be
pose." burnt ils fuel, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, "Contentment!" replied the ascetie smiling. will leave him for ever.
The king flying into a rage answered: - "Yes, dus who are learned in the Vedas, contentment." Hindu mythology and other sciences, whilst "My lord," said the sage, "my eyes discern bathing their feet, look over their persons to see
passion in thy face but not thy desires." iny spot left untouched by water. If they see
"That's true, but if you want to know and uny spot dry, they again bathe. Sani, the god of
fulfil my desire, I can explain it," said the king misfortune, awaits an opportunity of reducing a person to poverty by entering into any spot un.
in a low tone, and began thus: - "Lend an ear to touched by water.
me, Holy Father, your wondrous acts greatly
surprised mo, and that led me to ask you for the Likewise a man falls into thisfortune, when his
milch-cow, for by your power you can procure se baby goes and sits on a winnowing pan.
many as you please." A younger sister of a brother or a younger daughter of a parent, hesitatea to erect a hut on
Hearing this the ascetic ran hustily to loose
the cow, that it might fly away to its home high elevated ground, against the house of a brother or parent, when she is separated from them by
up in the ekies. wedlock. Neglect of this caution will result in The king seeing it disappear shot an arrow at death in either family.
it which only made a small wound in one of its The following are omens of 111-BUOOO88 to
legs, but drops of blood fell on the ground and a person in search of a vacant post, a loan from
one turned into a garlic plant, and another # a rich man, and other attempts of a similar
tobacco plant, and the third a tur plunt. kind :
The ascetic ran away to save his devoted life, A cat, a man dressed in black raiment, a running headlong through bill and dale to escape wusherman with a bundle of dirty clothes, a the revenge of the king, and hid himself in the bald-headed woman, a Br&bman widow, an oil. recesses of a forest. monger, a crying man, and a person with a stick The king in anger returned home and ordered on his shoulders.
his minister to tell all the Hindns of the origin of Some Hindus object to eating garlic and the three plants, and also prohibited them to eat a sort of pulse called tur, and chewing tobacco, them. Whoever eats such things is as great a and the cause of abstinence is suggested by the sinner as an eater of beef. following tale :
M. R. PEDLOW.
