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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1925
The Shrine of the Peacock. As we entered, one of our escort, a Nestorian, almost enveloped in bandoliers, whispered to me: "Effendim, this was once a church of ours, like Nebi Yunus at Nineveh "-the Mosque containing the tomb of the prophet Jonah, which surmounts the Palace of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. Probably he was right, for the temple is known to have been built by Christians and it bears & general resemblance to the early Christian churches of these parts. The interior oonsists of barrel-vaulted twin naves, and is entirely unlighted. In a corner of the so uthern nave there rises a spring of beautifully clear water, the sacred spring from Zemzem, while from the middle of the northern nave a door leads into the Holy of Holies, a square chamber surmounted by the principal spire of Sheikh Adi. There is nothing in this room in any way resembling an altar; its only contents are two draped wooden chests, one of them presumably the repository of the bronze Peacock. More mysterious is the adjoining chamber, where is stored the olive oil used at the shrine. Ranged along the walls are rows upon rows of large earthenware jars, which looked, by the flickering light of our small tapers, as if in them were concealed the forty thieves.
There is no village at Sheikh Adi, but around and above the temple are hundreds of buildings, large and small, devoted to a variety of purposes. There are the dwellings of the custodian and his attendant fakirs, and rest-houses for the pilgrims who repair thither at the two great feasts of the Yezidi year. Minor shrines and oratories of all sizes and shapes, some of them get apart for pilgrims of particular localities, dot the valley on either side of the glen, and a little way up the southern slope rises the fluted spire of Sheikh Shems ed-Din, the Sun. From the roof of this lesser temple, where the white oxen are sacrificed to the tutelary god, we obtained a good view of the precincts, embowered in greenery and blossom. And at night, when every dome and eminence and grove and spire is il lumined by flares of bitumen (for no lamps are allowed at Sheikh Adi, and the wicks for the flares are made at the shrine), the effect is beautiful in the extreme. It seemed wrong that all this loveliness and light should be la vished on the Prince of Darkness; yet one could not but admit, if his shrine be any criterion, that he is a gentleman, and a gentleman of taste.
MISCELLANEA. BUDDHA AND DEVADATTA.
out that the legend of Grdhrakúta is very old The fold of comparative history is no vast
world type which is generally dismissed with the that nothing can be done without mutual co
explanation "aetiological", though as a matter operation. Each investigator can only report
of fact that explains nothing, but is merely a what he has observed within his own area and
word used to conceal our ignorance. Somo the conclusions he draws, relying on others to
of those logends at least can be traced to ancient completo his evidence or destroy it by counter
ritual, but the key to most of them is missing, evidence.
partly because of that blessed word "aetiological", I am therefore grateful to Mr. Kalipada Mitra
by the use of which most investigators think
themselves exempted from any further effort. for having done both (see Ind Ant., vol. LII,
This type of legend is world wide and is familiar p. 125). He has successfully disposed of the
to students of European Folk-Lore. They must argument based on the language used by the
thoroforo bo of a most romoto antiquity, far Buddha to Devadatta. I confess it was rather
more remote than Buddhism. Some of these & weak one and I let it go without regret.
legends explain the configuration of the country Mr. Mitra sees in the size of the stone hurled as the result of a contest of two gods. Fijian at the Buddha an objection to my suggestion evidence inclinos me to suppose that this type is that it is a cross cousin legend; he thinks such an an ocho of magical contests between cross cousins, immense stone could only be thrown with malice. magical contests, such as are commonly described But in the legend of Nayau and Vanuavatu by the Brahmanas as taking place between Gods enormous rocks are hurled, 80 enormous that they (dera) and Demons (asura), both descended from can be seen standing in the sea to the present day; Prajd pats, and in imitation thereof between the yet this is a legend of cross cousinship. I pointed sacrifioer (yajumdnah) and his bhatroya, word
