Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 136

126
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1929
shuffling steps, while the priest dances in front of him, and makes a pretence of beckoning the "horse". All the other guests of the nokmå form a long queue behind the "horse", and dance after it. When the first man gets tired another takes his place, and thus the dancing goes on through the whole night. “A pleasant part of the performance is the pelting of the quré with eggs." Strictly speaking, this festival should last for three days and two nights, at the expiration of which period the body of the guré is thrown into the water, and the head preserved for another occasion. The people who come to witness the final scene of throwing the "horse" into the water bring rice with them, and a meal by the water's edge closes the proceedings. During the festival it is a custom to mix flour and water, and for the assembled people to dip their hands in the mixture, and make handmarks on the walls and posts of the houses and on the backs of the guests. At first sight all this rigmarole seems to be absolutely meaningless; but, as Sir James George Frazer has pointed out, it is undoubtedly a charm to ensure fertility as may be gathered from the pelting of the "horse's "head with eggs, and the throwing of the body in the water shews that it is also a rain-charm33.
The Gâros are especially interesting from the anthropological point of view as being one of the very few existing tribes where mother-kin still prevails. By mother-kin or mother. right, frequently but incorrectly termed matriarchate, is meant the system of tracing descent and transmitting property in the female line. Hartland has pointed out that the origin of mother-kin is to be found in the fact that paternity itself was not understood once, and not because of the uncertainty or impossibility of affiliating the children owing to polyandry, as was once supposed. The Gâros trace descent in the female line, but there is no indication that polyandry exists, or existed, among them. It is no doubt true that there was a time when the family, as we understand it to-day, did not exist, and a woman spent the whole of her life with her mother's kindred who brought up any children that might be born to her. But this we may presume from evidences at our disposal to have been very widespread34. Among the Gåros the children belong to the mother's clan. The woman is the absolute owner of all the property, except self-acquired property. But that does not postulate that the husband has no right over his wife's property. During her lifetime he has full control over all she possesses, and he may appoint a person, called nokroñg, "house-supporter", to succeed him when he dies as the protector of the household and the manager of the property. The nokrong is usually the son of his sister who is married to one of his daughters, and comes to live in the house. When the husband dies, the son-in-law marries his mother-in-law. This last is in direct opposition to the custom of mother-in-law taboos, originating in the fear of committing incost36, which is in force among practically all savage tribes to whom the mother-in-law is a much dreaded personage. As an almost parallel instance where the mother-in-law taboo is entirely disregarded it may be mentioned that among the Wahehe of former German East Africa, when a man is married he must sleep with the mother-in-law before he may cohabit with the wife37. If the wife of a Garo dies before her husband, or is divorced, without leaving any daughters, the wife's clan usually provides him with another wife who takes the property of the first wife, and thus keeps him in possession of the property38.
33 Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, vol. ii, p. 338 ; cf. p. 43, n. 1. Compare Pausanias, viii. 37 and Frazer's edition, vol. iv, pp. 375 sq. To give only a few European instances, rain-magic is practised by the
anjang, Macedonians, Wallachians, Armoniens, and so on. Some of these are of extremo simplicity, and consist merely of sprinkling water.
84 Cf. E.T. Hartland, Primitive Paternity, vol. ii, p. 208. (Sir) J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Atis, Osiris, (London, 1920), pp. 384-391 ; id., Totemism and Erogamy (London, 1910), vol. iii, p. 189; Col. (Sir) H. Yale, The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, 3rd ed., by H. Cordier, vol. i, p. 253.
36 For mother-in-law taboo, compare (Sir J. G. Frazer, Totemiom and Ecogamy, vol. iv, Index, s.v. “Mother-in-law", E.T. Crawley, The Mystic Rose (London, 1902), pp. 399-414; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891). p. 282.
86 Cf. M. Mauas,Parents et plaisanteries," Annuaire 1927-1928 (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etades Scienoos' Religieuses), p. 16.
37 Rev. . Cole, “Notes on the Wagogo," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxii (1901), p. 312.
* Conow of India, 1911, p. 237.