Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/103

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Miscellanea.
93

sweeper, he-ass met with she-ass, certain owls hooting over the village attacked, north-west wind, the jay. At the attack: Nudity charm.

402. Myth, containing the "fairy gift" (lumps of clay which afterwards turn into gold).

403. Religious Songs. One is: "Where is Solomon, and where is Alexander? Where is Jam and where is Darius? These were all dolls of dust; he made them, and again unmade them."

406. N.-W. Provinces.—Initiation rites among carpenters; e.g. red powder and turmeric sprinkled on the figure of Ganesa, and the yard measure is worshipped.

408. Offering of children to Mother Ganges. Children are now brought back, after the rite, by a payment to the priest.

410. Bhuinhar Brahmins.—Burial Rites: Certain cases where the Hindus bury the dead, (1) Jogis are buried, after the face alone has been set fire to. (2) Certain Vaishnava mendicants are buried in a sitting posture. Other cases given.

411. Saharanpur.—Relic of female kinship.

412. N.-W. Provinces.—If a girl remains unmarried, she is made to go through a form of marriage with a tree, by going seven times round it. [Cf. 266.]

417. Case of human sacrifice (in law-court).

447. Presiding deities of planets.

448. When it is lucky to shave. 451-2, Star-lore.

454. Small-pox shrines.

456. Marriage, lucky times for (Hindu).

457. 'Marriage of Trees, or of Trees (or wooden image of a man) to Wells. Only mango trees. Same rites, and garments, as in human wedding; red-lead and all.

459. The customs of the Mahsud Wazinis.—Dress. Wife-purchase. Women wear dress inside out for luck when their men go to war. Were-geld.

460. Saharanpur.—Marriage deities of the Ahirs. Part of the rite is to smear with vermilion the oldest banyan-tree in the village at the same time as the bride's hair is marked.

462. Expulsion of Cholera Spirit (Berar).—A plough is yoked and driven round the village; circuit not quite complete, but small space left for the spirit to escape. There a fowl and a goat