Ceremonies at Winnowing.
Winnowing is a very serious and solemn operation, not lightly to be commenced without due consultation of the stars.
In Hoshangâbâd, when the village priest has fixed a favourable time, the cultivator, his whole family, and his labourers go to the threshing-floor, taking with them the prescribed articles of worship, such as milk, butter, turmeric, boiled wheat, and various kinds of grain. The threshing-floor stake is washed in water, and these things are offered to it and to the pile of threshed grain. The boiled wheat is scattered about in the hope that the Bhûts or spirits may content themselves with it and not take any of the harvested corn. Then the master stands on a three-legged stool, and taking five basketsful from the threshed heap, winnows them. After winnowing, the grain and chaff are collected again and measured; if the five baskets are turned out full, or anything remains over, it is a good omen. If they cannot fill the baskets, the place where they began winnowing is considered unlucky and it is removed a few yards to another part of the threshing-floor. The five basketsful are presented to a Brâhman, or distributed in the village, not mixed with the rest of the harvest.
Winnowing can then go on as convenient, but one precaution must be taken. As long as winnowing goes on the basket must never be set down on its bottom, but always upside down. If this were not done, the spirits would use the basket to carry off the grain. The day’s results are measured generally in the evening. This is done in perfect silence, the measurer sitting with his back to the unlucky quarter of the sky, and tying knots to keep count of the number of the baskets. The spirits rob the grain until it is measured, but when once it has been measured they are afraid of detection.[54]
In the Eastern Panjâb, the clean grain is collected into a heap. Preparatory to measuring, the greatest care has to be observed in the preparation of this heap, or evil spirits will diminish the yield. One man sits facing the north, and places two round balls of cowdung on the ground. Between them he sticks in a plough-coulter, a symbol known as Shâod Mâtâ or “the mother of fertility.” A piece of the Âkh or swallow-wort and some Dûb grass are added, and they salute it, saying: “O Mother Shâod! Give the increase! Make our bankers and rulers contented!” The man then carefully hides the image of Shâod from all observers while he covers it up with grain, which the others throw over his head from behind. When it is well covered, they pile the grain upon it, but three times during the process the ceremony of Châng is performed. The man stands to the south of the heap and goes round it towards the west the first and third time, and the reverse way the second time. As he goes round, he has the hand furthest from the heap full of grain, and in the other a winnowing fan, with which he taps the heap. When the heap is finished they sprinkle it with Ganges water, and put a cloth over it till it is time to measure the grain. A line is then drawn on the ground all round the heap, inside which none but the measurer must go. All these operations must be performed in profound silence.[55]
In Bareilly, when the whole of the grain and chaff has been winnowed, all the dressed grain is collected into a heap. “The winnower, with his basket in his right hand, goes from the south towards the west, and then towards the north, till he reaches the pole to which the treading-out cattle have been tethered. He then returns the same way, goes to the east till he reaches the pole, and back again to the south; then he places the basket on the ground and utters some pious ejaculation. Then an iron sickle, a stick of the sacred Kusa grass, and a bit of swallow-wort, with a cake of cowdung in a cleft stick, are placed on the heap, and four cakes of cowdung at the four corners; and a line is traced round it with cowdung. A fire offering is then made, and some butter and coarse sugar are offered as sacrifice. Water is next thrown round the piled grain and the remainder of the sugar distributed to those present.”[56]
In the Etah District, the owner of the field places to the north of the pile of grain a threshing-floor rake, a bullock’s muzzle, and a rope at a distance of three spans from the piled grain; and between these things and the pile he lays a little offering consisting of a few ears of grain, some leaves of the swallow-wort, and a few flowers. These things are laid on a piece of cowdung. He then covers the pile of grain with a cloth to protect it from thieving Bhûts, and puts in a basket three handfuls of grain as the perquisite of the village priest who lights the Holî fire. Something is also laid by for the village beggars. Then he sprinkles a little grain on the cloth, and fills a basket full of grain which he pours back on the pile as an emblem of increase. He then bows to the gods who live in the northern hills, and mutters a prayer; it is only at this time that he breaks the silence with which the whole ceremony is performed. The cloth is then removed, and the rite is considered complete.