________________
298
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1902.
round her gumphá (hat, kitchen), and she was enjoined not to leave the latter during her protector's absence. She disobeyed the order out of charity towards Råvaņa, who was disguised as an ascetic, and was thus carried off by him.
The practice of tattooing a scorpion, a snake, a bee or a spider has its origin in sympathetio magic, which is supposed to protect people so marked.
The dotted and continuous lines used in drawing these figures may enable ethnographers to distinguish the tribal origins of different sects. The Gujarâthis of Bombay and the Todas of Madras use the dotted process, while the Marathås and Drávidas use the linear one. Careful investigation may give us definite data.
Among the nomads mentioned, the Kanjars are a criminal tribe of cattle-lifters and dakaits. They are notoriously versatile, and change their tribal name so constantly that it has always been difficult to trace them. If tattoo marks can be so classified as to enable the police to say definitely whether & gang consists of Kanjars, Sânsis, Multâns Banjârâs, Hajrabasis, Singuvâlîs, Ods, rope-dancers, or acrobats, a great administrative gain would acerue.
The fear of losing one's identity in heaven among these wandering tribes is due to the fear of being abducted or lost on earth in the jungles, Tattooing on a sensitive part also of the body owes its origin to sympathetio maglo, but the spider deserves special mention, as it is credited with the power of producing leprosy. The parrot is a love bird, and has special value as a charm.
The most important part of the information collected is the belief that the tattoo marks migrate to Heaven with "the little entire man or woman" (soul) inside the mortal frame.
Considering the results of this preliminary inquiry, it is to be hoped that some one will take steps to obtain separate plates for each oaste, showing the designs as they actually are in shape and size, and noting on each sheet the tribe or caste and the place of birth of the individual. The latter will show the effects of environment. The notes given above will show how important the subjeot is from an ethnographical point of view.
THE RELIGION OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLES.
BY THE LATE PROF, O. P. TIELE. (Translated into English by G. K. Nariman.)
Sources. Very abundant are the writings out of which one may learn to study the Maxdayasnien religion as it flourished under the sway of the Sassanides, and has since to the present day been preserved in a few districts of Persia, but above all in Western India. Before the Avesta became known in Europe, we had to content ourselves with these and with the reports of the classical authors for an acquaintance with Zoroastrianism. At the close of the seventeenth century, the erudite professor at Oxford, Thomans Hyde, essayed, on the basis of these sources, and preponderatingly on the more recent ones, an account of the religion of the ancient Persians, Parthians and Medians. It goes without saying that the founts of our information comprise much that is old, that they communicate to n8 many a tradition and depict for us many enstoms which have existed for centaries. But what is old in them and what of a later date can be positively ascertained only by means of a comparative exposition of
• See Fraser's Golden Bough, p. 3.
. Compare - "Thoy, Kbyons (Chins), allege that they were driven to it (tattooing) bocanso their women were naturally so beautiful that they were constantly carried off by neighbouring tribes." -Sir John Lubbook in Original Civilisation, p. 64. [Xvidence of this more than doubtful, however.- ED.)
• Vide Fruer's Golden Bough for this belief,
Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum Eorusque Magorum. Ozon. 1700.
