________________
AUGUST, 1903.)
NOTES AND QUERIES.
843
appear to be those of a ballet or arrow on the right temple and at the left side of the baok of the skull.
Lying near the bed is the skeleton of a large dog which the people say was tied to the bed or charpdi by a string when arst observed. Between the bed and the back of the recens are a few bones. The bed is firmly made of rounded wood (including the frame) and is still in good condition. Lieutenant Macleod seated himself on it when exploring the cave. Over the ribs
and head of the corpse was a coarse cloth, thin, and of a dirty yellow colour.
The natives point to another place about 20 yards away and say that there is another vault there in which women's skeletons are to be found. No one living appears to have ever entered the second cave, if it exists as alleged.
The natives hold the place in considerable awe, and have a theory that the place was the scene of a fight. The whole vault was extraordinarily symmetrical.
NOTES AND QUERIES. TABUS IN THE PANJAB.
Forms of Tabu. It has been elsewhere pointed out that many Buildings. The chaubard. -The Nagri J&ts of of the objects, from which repts or sections Nagra in LudbiAnA may not build a chaubard, for of certain tribes in the Panjab are named, it brings bad luck. The people of Sanwar in Dadri are the subjeots of ordinary tabus. The nam- bave the following tradition :- Lakhan Mahajan ber of tabued objects appears to be extraordinarily of Sanwar had a son, who was in the service of large and a few instances are given below. I am Akbar and married in Papôrk in Tahail Bhiwani. anxious to obtain a large number of instances of Returning from # visit to his father-in-law, he tabus, because there are so many aepta or sections was murdered by the people of Pupork, and his of tribes named after material objects. In many
wife robbed. A Brahman, barber, and his cases the story told about the totem and the tabu sister's son were with him at the time, and the two is the same - it saved the life of an'ancestor, or
latter fled, but the Brahman remained, burnt the rendered some important service to the sept, and body and took the ashes to Sanwar, on the bounso it is kept in mind and reverenced for ever after. dary of which place he threw them away, while the But in some cases that object is reverenood as wife became sati and cursed her nephew, whose an ancestor. E. g., certain Kanst Khêls reverence daughters she declared should never live in peace. trees as their ancestors, because they assisted Lakhan attacked Papörd and removed the bricks their forefathers, and so they now bear the names of all its buildings, paying a rupee each for them, of those trees, as Palashf, Kanish, Pajaik (from and built them into a chaubird at Sanwar. It pdja, a kind of tree, cf. Nagaik from udg). In then became the rule there that a chaubard could the other cases the name is not adopted by the only be built with bricks from Papård. The two sept, nor is the object worshipped. It is simply | villages do not intermarry. tabaed, i. e., not out, used or injured. The distinction is important.
Utensils. - The villagers of Bågara-nasrath in
Kohật may not use a khamdrt, or deep hollow The following questions suggest them- earthenware cup. solves :
Pitchers. - At Mauza ChipiA in Dart a woman 1. Are there instances of people who refuse to
may not carry two pitchers, one on top of the other, use or injure any article, or to work on any
because 35 years ago a faqfr named KhushḥAl particular day, and so on P
Singh cast out cattle-disease, which was raging in
the village, and then imposed this tabu on the 2. In such cases, is the custom confined to people. a particular family or got or sept, or is it common to the wholo oaste !
| Kachala.-This fruit may not be eaten by the
Shnara Gadi Khel Pathans in Kohat. 3. What is the story told about the origin of the custom
Bongan. - This may not be eaten by a family
of carpenters in the same village. The Ohhibhar 4. Is any form of worship paid to the object section of the Mubial, in KaniAll, have a similar in question P
| tabu (Jhelam District).
