Aerolites.
All over the world people say that if when a meteor or falling star darts across the sky they can utter a wish before it disappears, that wish will be granted. The old Norsemen believed that it implied that a dragon was flashing through the air. In Italy[206] the sight of such a body is a cure for blear eyes. In India it is believed that the residence of a soul in heaven is proportionate to the charities done by him on earth, and when his allotted period is over he falls as an aerolite. A falling star means that the soul of some great man is passing through the air, and when people see one of these stars they thrust their five fingers into their mouths to prevent their own souls from joining his company. Many of these aerolites are worshipped as lingams in Saiva shrines. One which fell at Sîtâmarhi in Bengal in 1880, has now been deified, and is worshipped as Adbhût-nâtha, or “the miraculous god.”[207]
[1] On the assimilation by Rome of Celtic faiths, see Rhys, “Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom,” 2 sq.
[2] Lang, “Custom and Myth,” 178.
[3] Leland, “Etruscan Remains,” 9.
[4] At Pushkar and Idar. Monier Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 566 sqq.
[5] Devatâ in Sanskrit properly means “the state or nature of a deity, divinity,” without any very decided idea of inferiority. In modern usage it certainly has this implication.
[6] “Panjâb Ethnography,” 113.
[7] Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” ii. 114, 342, 353; iii. 110, 112; xiii. 63; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 160; Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 6, 50, 145, 286.
[8] Hunter, “Orissa,” i. 188; Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 128.
[9] “Asiatic Quarterly Review,” ii. 236.
[10] Sherring, “Sacred City of the Hindus,” 59, 157; Bholanâth Chandra, “Travels,” ii. 384.
[11] Monier-Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 342.
[12] Wilson, “Essays,” ii. 384.
[13] Growse, “Mathura,” 180. The story of Joshua ([x. 12–14]) is an obvious parallel.
[14] Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 25.
[15] Blochmann, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” i. 200–266.
[16] Max Müller, “Ancient Sanskrit Literature,” 53, note.
[17] Hall, “Vishnu Purâna,” ii. 150; “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1862, p. 112.
[18] Tod, “Annals,” i. 597.
[19] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 130, 132, 133, 141, 157, 159, 186, 223; Elliott, “Hoshangâbâd Settlement Report,” 255; Hislop, “Papers,” 26.
[20] “Folk-lore,” iv. 358.
[21] Gordon Cumming, “From the Hebrides to the Himâlayas,” ii. 164; Brand, “Observations,” 126; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 61; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 98, 573.
[22] Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 234; Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 493, 524; Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 160; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” i. 99, 139, 170.
[23] Knowles, “Kashmîr Folk-tales,” 3; fire is used in the same way; Temple, “Wideawake Stories,” 32, 271; “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 42; “Folk-lore Journal,” ii. 104.
[24] Campbell, “Notes,” 70.
[25] i. 50.
[26] Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 415.
[27] x. 85, 5.
[28] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xiii. 93.
[29] “Merchant of Venice,” v. 1; “Hamlet,” iv. 7.
[30] “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, February;” see other references collected by Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 318.
[31] Mrs. Mîr Hasan ’Ali, “Manners and Customs of the Muhammadans of India,” i. 275.
[32] “Folk-lore,” ii. 222; iv. 355.
[33] “Institutes,” vi. 9; Wilson, “Vishnu Purâna,” 145, 275 note.
[34] Ewald, “Antiquities of Israel,” 349 sq.; Goldziher, “Mythology among the Hebrews,” 63.
[35] “Odes,” iii. 23, 1, 2, and compare [Job xxxi. 26, 27]; [Psalm lxxxi. 3].
[36] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 205 sq.
[37] Campbell, “Notes,” 187.
[38] Sherring, “Sacred City,” 221; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 42.
[39] Hunter, “Orissa,” ii. 140.
[40] Sarat Chandra Mitra, “Vestiges of Moon-worship in Bihâr and Bengal,” in the “Journal Anthropological Society of Bombay,” 1893.
[41] “Folk-lore,” ii. 221; Monier Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 343.
[42] Hardy, “Eastern Monachism,” 149.
[43] “Folk-lore,” ii. 228.
[44] Oppert, “Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsa,” 97, 98, 40.
[45] Ovid, “Fasti,” iv. 728; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 113; “Folk-lore,” ii. 128; Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 326; “Indian Antiquary,” ii. 90; iii. 68; vii. 126 sqq.; Wilson, “Essays,” s.v. “Holî;” [Leviticus xviii. 21]; [2 Kings xxiii. 10]; Herklot, “Qânûn-i-Islâm,” s.v. “Muharram.”
[46] Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 28.
[47] “Lear,” i. 2.
[48] “Brihat Sanhita.” Manning, “Ancient India,” i. 371.
[49] “Demonology,” i. 45.
[50] Mrs. Mîr Hasan ’Ali, “Observations,” i. 297 sq.
[51] “Travels,” 301.
[52] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 913 sq.
[53] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 38.
[54] Brand, “Observations,” 665; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 37, 85.
[55] The Celtic form of the myth is given by Rhys, “Lectures,” 140 sq.; the Indian legend in Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” ii. 23.
[56] “Golden Bough,” i. 331 sq.; and see Lang, “Custom and Myth,” ii. 262.
[57] Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnology,” 114.
[58] Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 291, with note ii. 543.
[59] For instances, see Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 179.
[60] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xi. 55.
[61] Campbell, “Notes,” 79.
[62] “Folk-lore,” ii. 298.
[63] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xxii. 790.
[64] Fryer, “Travels,” 418; Campbell, “Notes,” 81.
[65] “Custom and Myth,” i. 285; ii. 229, note.
[66] Campbell, “Notes,” 78 sqq.
[67] Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 206; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 37; Ewald, “Antiquities of Israel,” 34; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 259, 314; Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” ii. 643.
[68] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 261.
[69] Elliott, “Settlement Report,” 125.
[70] “Settlement Report,” 168.
[71] “Folk-lore,” i. 153.
[72] Virgil, “Georgics,” i. 487; “Æneid,” vii. 141; Horace, “Odes,” i. 34, 5.
[73] “Descriptive Ethnology,” 229.
[74] “Peri Potamôn.”
[75] i. 3888 sqq.
[76] “Mathura,” 179 sq.
[77] Duncker, “History,” iv. II, note; Romesh Chandra Datt, “History of Civilization,” i. 94.
[78] Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 41.
[79] Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 224; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” iii. 219.
[80] “Karnâl Gazetteer,” 31.
[81] Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. II; Madden, “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” 1847, 228, 400; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 154, 163.
[82] Madden, loc. cit., 233.
[83] Loc. cit., i. 14.
[84] Sleeman, “Rambles,” i. 17.
[85] “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 264.
[86] “Folk-lore,” iii. 32.
[87] “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 374.
[88] “Odyssey,” v. 450; and for other instances see Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 213; Campbell, “Notes,” 325 sqq.
[89] Growse, “Mathura,” 55; Tod, “Annals,” i. 675; Oldfield, “Sketches from Nepâl,” ii. 204.
[90] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 788, 832.
[91] “Berar Gazetteer,” 35.
[92] “Folk-lore,” i. 152, 209; iii. 72.
[93] Rhys, “Lectures,” 123.
[94] Knowles, “Folk-tales,” 313.
[95] “Folk-lore,” ii. 284, 509; Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 194; Campbell, “Popular Tales,” ii. 205; Conway, “Demonology,” i. 110 sq.; Sir W. Scott, “Letters on Demonology,” 85; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 219; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 366; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 30; Gordon Cumming, “From the Hebrides to the Himâlayas,” i. 139; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 109 sq.; ii. 208; Gregor, “Folk-lore,” 66 sq.; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 216; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 58.
[96] Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 109.
[97] “Descriptive Ethnology,” 188.
[98] “Primitive Culture,” i. 108 sq.; “Demonology,” i. 205.
[99] “Folk Medicine,” 28 sq.
[100] “Legends,” 82 sq.
[101] Brand, “Observations,” 480.
[102] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 242.
[103] Herklots, “Qânûn-i-Islâm,” 21, 66 sq, 292; Hughes, “Dictionary of Islâm, s.v.
[104] Frazer, “Golden Bough,” ii. 185.
[105] Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 114; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 1; iii. 7; iv. 68.
[106] Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 102.
[107] “Sirsa Settlement Report,” 178.
[108] “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 258; Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 118.
[109] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 124.
[110] Ball, “Jungle Life in India,” 531; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 166; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 2; Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 236 sqq.
[111] Campbell, “Notes,” 404.
[112] Forbes, “Settlement Report,” 41.
[113] Knowles, “Folk-tales of Kashmîr,” 504, with note; “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 499.
[114] Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 80, 134.
[115] “Eastern India,” ii. 43.
[116] Rhys, “Lectures,” 184.
[117] Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 292.
[118] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 793, 798.
[119] Ibid., iii. 38.
[120] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” iii. 26.
[121] Tod, “Annals,” i. 814 sq.; Conway, “Demonology,” i. 113; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 169.
[122] From the “Mânasa Khanda”; Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 308.
[123] “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 131.
[124] “Science of Fairy Tales,” chapter vi.; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 148.
[125] Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 194.
[126] “Bareilly Settlement Report,” 20; Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 26; “Bhandâra Settlement Report,” 47; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 39.
[127] Oppert, “Ancient Inhabitants,” 467; Grimm, “Household Tales,” ii. 466.
[128] Führer, loc cit., 290.
[129] “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” iii. 27.
[130] “Archæological Reports,” iv. 192.
[131] Ibid., viii. 39.
[132] Ibid., xxi. 175.
[133] Ibid., xiv. 76.
[134] Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 289.
[135] “Popular Tales,” i. 176.
[136] Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales of Bengal,” 281; “Berâr Gazetteer,” 158, 176; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 42; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 135; “Bombay Gazetteer,” v. 440; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 220.
[137] i. 17.
[138] “Mânasa Khanda”; Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 271.
[139] See the remarks by Lassen, quoted by Muir, “Ancient Sanskrit Texts,” ii. 337.
[140] Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 200 sq., 210, 336.
[141] “Remaines,” 18; Sir W. Scott, “Lectures on Demonology,” 135.
[142] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 188, 210, 223, 230, 135, 186; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 306.
[143] Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 832.
[144] “Settlement Report,” 121, 254.
[145] Atkinson, loc. cit., ii. 792; Hislop, “Papers,” 14; Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 139.
[146] Atkinson, loc. cit., iii. 48.
[147] “Bombay Gazetteer,” v. 252.
[148] Human sacrifice to the Durgâ of the Vindhyas occurs often in Indian folk-lore. See Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 64.
[149] Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 24; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 178.
[150] Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. 51 sq.; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 333.
[151] Griffin, “Râjas of the Panjâb.”
[152] Growse, “Mathura,” 278, where all the local legends are given in full.
[153] “Anatomy of Melancholy,” 123.
[154] “Primitive Culture,” ii. 261.
[155] Growse, “Râmâyana,” 318.
[156] “History of India,” chapter iii. 21, 330.
[157] Sherring, “Sacred City,” 129.
[158] Hislop, “Papers,” 18.
[159] “Folk-lore,” iii. 541.
[160] Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 292, 301; Oldfield, “Sketches from Nepâl,” ii. 6.
[161] “Notes and Queries,” v. Ser. iii. 424; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 70; Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 16.
[162] Conway, “Demonology,” i. 267.
[163] Ibid., 224.
[164] “Science of Fairy Tales,” 71 sqq.
[165] Campbell, “Notes,” 101 sq.
[166] “Bombay Gazetteer,” xviii. 416; xxi. 180; “Journal Ethnological Society,” N. S. i. 98. In the “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 154, the queen Kavalayavalî worships the gods stark naked.
[167] Wright, “History,” 10.
[168] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 148, 301.
[169] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 31, 35.
[170] “Golden Bough,” i. 17; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 41, 115; Hartland, “Science of Fairy Tales,” 84.
[171] “Settlement Report,” 207.
[172] I cannot procure this book. The quotation is from “Calcutta Review,” xv. 486.
[173] “Settlement Report,” 135.
[174] Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” vii. 162.
[175] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 210.
[176] Oppert, “Original Inhabitants,” 476, quoting Mr. Fawcett.
[177] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 134.
[178] “Bombay Gazetteer,” iii. 221.
[179] “Indian Antiquary,” v. 5.
[180] “Bombay Gazetteer,” iv. 114.
[181] Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 408, quoting Alberuni, chapter viii.
[182] “Ethnology in Folk-lore,” 94.
[183] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 102.
[184] Ibid., ii. 41; Lyall, “Asiatic Studies,” 136.
[185] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 369.
[186] “Golden Bough,” i. 14.
[187] Brand, “Observations,” 753.
[188] Beal, “Fah Hian,” 78.
[189] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iv. 218.
[190] Turner, “Samoa,” 45.
[191] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 101; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 180; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 24.
[192] Aubrey, “Remaines,” 180; Henderson, “Folk-lore,” 24; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 65, 75, 109, 126.
[193] “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 217.
[194] Brand, “Observations,” 431.
[195] “Archæological Reports,” v. 136.
[196] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 13.
[197] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 135.
[198] “Folk-lore,” i. 162.
[199] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 106.
[200] “Folk-lore,” i. 149.
[201] Ibid., iv. 173.
[202] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 128; “Folk-lore,” i. 149, 153; iv. 351.
[203] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 79.
[204] Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” ii. 104 sqq.; iii. 301.
[205] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 39; Forbes, “Oriental Memoirs,” i. 205.
[206] Leland, loc. cit., 272.
[207] “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 32.
CHAPTER II.
THE HEROIC AND VILLAGE GODLINGS.
Arma procul currusque virum miratur inanes.
Stant terrâ defixæ hastæ, passimque soluti
Per campum pascuntur equi.
Æneid, vi. 652–654.