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FOLKLORE OF THE KONKAN
At Umbergaon people do not throw stones At Vijayadurg it is believed that a person at an owl. For it is considered that the owl who builds a house in the days of his prospemight sit and rub the stone, and that the
rity and does not survive to enjoy it, becomes person throwing it will become weak and
a Sambandh. He remains in that house in the wasted as the stone wears away.1
form of a ghost, and troubles every one who The people of Kolhápur do not believe that
comes to stay there, excepting the members of there is any connection between the bat or owl
his family. A man who buries his treasure and the spirits of the dead, but they believe
underground becomes a ghost after death, that, if an owl cries out in the evening or at comes back to watch his treasure, and troubles night, it indicates the death of a sick person in those who try to remove it. the family. This applies also to the sound Unoccupied houses are generally haunted of a single pingla, but the sound of a pair of
by evil spirits. At certain forts in the Konkan pinglas is considered auspicious.
where battles were fought, the souls of those It is generally believed that old unoccu- slain in the battles are said to have assumed pied houses are haunted by evil spirits, the forms of spirits, and to keep a watch over Persons who wish to inhabit such houses first the forts.? perform the Vástu shánti ceremony, and give In the Kolhápur District there is a village a feast to Brálnians. In former times, in the Nigve beyond the river Panch Ganga at districts that were ruled by the Portuguese, a distance of three miles from Kolhápur, where religious persecution prevailed. To escape the soul of a person named Appáji Kulkarni from these persecutions, people were compelled has assumed the form of a Sambandh and to leave their houses unprotected. Before guards the buried treasures in his house, leaving their houses, they used to bury their When anybody tries to dig up the buried money, treasure in the ground, and on that spot the ghost enters the body of his daughter-in-law a human being or an animal was sacrificed in and begins to dance and cry out loudly, and order that the spirit of the dead should hover does not allow any one to touch bis treasure. about the place, and prevent strangers from It is also said that he strikes the ground with coming.
bis stick at night. Another similar instance The evil spirits which haunt ruins and guard is cited in the case of the village of Latvade buried treasures and old forts are known as in the Shirol Peta, where Bápajipant KulkarMahápurush, Khavis, Brahma Rákshasa and ni continues to guard his house after death. Sambandh
He does not allow anybody to live in the house, If there ble any buried treasure in an old and if any one is bold enough to sleep there unoccupied house, the owner of the treasure at night, the spirit of Bápuji appears and remains there in the forni of a ghost. If the throws him out of the house. The house is treasure be near the temple of a deity, it is therefore uninhabited at present. His wife supposed to be under the guardianship of that has adopted a son, but he has to live in another deity."
village Vadange,
1 School Master, Umbergaon, Thána.
School Master, Ubbádáada, Ratnagiri. 5 School Master, Pendur, Ratnagiri. 1 School Master, Poladpur, Kolába.
? Ráo Saheb Shelke, Kolbápur. • School Master, Adivare, Ratnagiri. . School Master, Vijayadrug, Ratnagiri. + Ráo Sáheb Shelle, Kolkapur.
