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Juwe, 1928)
SOME NOTES ON MAGIC AND TABOO IN BENGAL
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scavengers or sweepers. They are regarded as thoroughly unclean, and most people would hesit. ate even to tread on their shadows, fearing to be polluted by thus coming into magical contact with them; they however glory in the euphemistic name of metar37 (from Persian mihtarine,
& great personage '). In a similar manner the name of a water-carrier is taboo, and he is popularly known as bhisti (from Persian bihishti Liit, a dweller in paradise '). Taboos of a different nature are those which prohibit the use of the names of snakes, thieves, robbers, tigers and so on after nightfall38. The beings which these names represent are all dreaded ; things which are dreaded need to be conciliated; therefore their names are taboo for fcar of being visited by them. Not only fear but respect also forbids mentioning names of certain persons and objects. Hindu women are loth to mention their husbands' names; should this be for some reason absolutely necessary, they would change the initial letters before pronouncing them, and, if this should prove unsuccessful, write them down. For the same reason, whenever the name of a deceased person is uttered, the prefix isvar (God') is put before it39. In different parts of the country, as at Bilaspur 40, when the panchayat (* village council') meets, no one of the assembly is allowed to twirl a spindle, for, if this be done, the discussion, like the spindle, will go round in a circle and no definite conclusion will be arrived at. If we look up any Bengali dictionary we find that the verb jáoya or jaon means 'to go, to go away'; in practice the signification is modified to 'to go away for ever', and hence its use is limited. Thus for example, when a boy is taking leave of his mother on his way to school, he will never say jachchhi' ('I am going '), because that suggests an inauspicious omen, but will say instead 'asi' ('I am coming'), which is cheating fate.
Among the taboos observed by primitive people none are more numerous or important than the prohibitions against eating certain foods 40. In abstaining from these foods, he is in reality performing negative magic ; therefore I shall give a few examples of food taboos in modern Bengal. Beef is forbidden to all Hindus, as also the flesh of those animals which are respected by them. Among vegetables, the principal taboos are onions, garlic, palm, mushrooms and plants growing in unclean places". Lentils are taboo to all good Brahmans, because, when cooked, they look red and thus suggest blood. Moreover, it is forbidden to partake of food while standing or lying down, or in a naked state, or in wet clothes13. They must not also sit to a meal with their wives, although an ancient ritual prescribed it during the marriage ceremony 44.
From the above sketch, which has necessarily been short, we find that magic, both in its positive and negative form, enters largely into the public and the private life of the Bengalis.
31 This name has been applied to the class in question in irony or rather in consolation.... But the name has so completely adhered in this application, that all sense of either irony or consolation has perished." (Col. (Sir] H. Yuloand A. C. Burnell, Hobson Jobson, A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Wonds and Phrases, 1st edition, London, 1886, pp. 432 sq.)
38 Ethnologie du Bengale, p. 83; North Indian Notes and Queries, I, 15.
39 Can this be attributed to ancestor worship, or is it through the fear of being followed by the ghost of the dead 1 Cf. the German custom of prefixing der selige with an almost identical meaning. The Muhammadans abstain from mentioning the QurAn by name; they call it bari chis (Lt. Col. D. C. Phillott, ibid.). In the Decaloguo (Exodus, XX, 7) we find it expressly mentioned "Thou shalt not take tho name of the Lord thy God in vain."
6. (Sir) J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. I, p. 117.
41 (Sir) M. Williams, Hinduism, London, 1878, pp. 155-157; J. Jolly, Recht und Sitle, p. 153. See my Ethnologie du Bengale, pp. 63, 85, 85 n. 3.
43 " Von vegetabilischer Nahrung soll man Knoblauch, Lauch, Zwiebeln, Pilze und auf dem Misto gowachsene Pflanzon meiden. Auch von unwürdigen Personen geschenkto, abgestandene Speisen, wie Uberreste einer Mahlzeit, von unreinen Tieren oder Menschen berührto Speisen u. dgl. dürfen nicht genosson werden." (J. Jolly, op. cit., pp. 167 sq.)
43 J. Jolly, op. cit., p. 168. But why?
* E. Hartland, The Legend of Persous, London, 1894–1896, vol. II, p. 345, quoting Sacrod Books, XXX, 49.
