The Witch of the Palwârs.
The Palwâr Râjputs of Oudh have a witch ancestress. Soon after the birth of her son she was engaged in baking cakes. Her infant began to cry, and she was obliged to perform a double duty. At this juncture her husband arrived just in time to see his demon wife assume gigantic and supernatural proportions, so as to allow both the baking and nursing to go on at the same time. But finding her secret discovered, the witch disappeared, leaving her son as a legacy to her astonished husband.[73] Here, though the story is incomplete, we have almost certainly, as in the case of Nonâ Chamârin, one of the Melusina type of legend, where the supernatural wife leaves her husband and children, because he violated some taboo, by which he is forbidden to see her in a state of nudity, or the like.[74]
The history of witchcraft in India, as in Europe, is one of the saddest pages in the annals of the people. Nowadays, the power of British law has almost entirely suppressed the horrible outrages which, under the native administration, were habitually practised. But particularly in the more remote and uncivilized parts of the country, this superstition still exists in the minds of the people, and occasional indications of it, which appear in our criminal records, are quite sufficient to show that any relaxation of the activity of our magistrates and police would undoubtedly lead to its revival in some of its more shocking forms.
[1] For the European witch, consult among other authorities Scott, “Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,” passim; Chambers, “Book of Days,” i. 356 sq.; Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 69 sq.; Conway, “Demonology,” ii. 317, 327; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 245 sq.
[2] “Asiatic Studies,” 79 sqq., 89 sqq.
[3] “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 155.
[4] Chambers, “Popular Rhymes of Scotland,” 23.
[5] “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 14.
[6] Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 289.
[7] Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 176; Tawney, loc. cit., i. 375.
[8] Temple, “Wideawake Stories,” 395; Tawney, loc. cit., i. 157, 159, 289, 340; ii. 164, 240; Brand, “Observations,” 589; Rhys, “Lectures,” 199: Hunt. “Popular Romances,” 327.
[9] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 150; Hunt, loc. cit., 328.
[10] Dyer, “Popular Customs,” 395; Tawney, loc. cit., i. 313.
[11] “Bombay Gazetteer,” iv. 27; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” iii. 13.
[12] Loc. cit., 3.
[13] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 323.
[14] Campbell, “Notes,” 203 sq.
[15] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 78.
[16] “Lectures,” 516 sq.
[17] Malcolm, “Central India,” ii. 212.
[18] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 290.
[19] “Notes,” 257 sq.
[20] Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 312 sqq.; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 201 sq.
[21] Balfour, “Cyclopædia,” i. 961; Lyall, “Asiatic Studies,” 85; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 7.
[22] Tylor, “Early History,” 276.
[23] Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 218.
[24] “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 84 sqq.
[25] “Central India,” ii. 216.
[26] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 151.
[27] Leland, loc. cit., 221.
[28] Brand, “Observations,” 609.
[29] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 252.
[30] Malcolm, “Central India,” ii. 214, note.
[31] Leland, loc. cit., 57; Brand, loc. cit., 740; Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 177.
[32] Tod, “Annals,” ii. 106.
[33] “Natural History,” vii. 2.
[34] Tod, “Annals,” ii. 638; Malcolm, loc. cit., ii. 212.
[35] Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. Introduction, xxi; “Wideawake Stories,” 429.
[36] “Oriental Memoirs,” ii. 374 sq.
[37] “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 110 sq.
[38] Ibid., 39.
[39] “Reports Nizâmat Adâlat,” 14th December, 1854.
[40] “Berâr Gazetteer,” 197.
[41] Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” i. 98.
[42] Knowles, “Folk-tales,” 77.
[43] Dyer, “Popular Customs,” 164; Brand, “Observations,” 108, 341.
[44] Campbell, Notes,” 83.
[45] “Folk-lore,” ii. 290; Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 188; Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 201, 218 sq., 244; Aubrey, “Remaines,” 247; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 290 sq.
[46] “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 157.
[47] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 199.
[48] Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 240.
[49] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 6.
[50] See Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 199.
[51] Henderson, “Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,” 32; Gregor, “Folk-lore of North-East Scotland,” 183.
[52] Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii. 221.
[53] “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 7.
[54] Lady Wilde, “Legends,” 197, 206. See instances collected by Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. 64 sq.
[55] Aubrey, “Remaines,” 11; and for examples of similar practices see Sir W. Scott, “Letters on Demonology,” 273; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 243; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 116; ii. 149; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 241, 244; Henderson, loc. cit., 148; Farrer, “Primitive Manners,” 287; Oldenberg, “Grihya Sûtras,” i. 57.; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. 70 sq.
[56] “Qânûn-i-Islâm,” 222 sq.
[57] Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 320.
[58] “Letters on Demonology,” 273; “Remaines,” 61, 228; “Folk-lore,” iii. 385; iv. 256; Miss Cox, “Cinderella,” 491.
[59] Ward, “Hindus,” i. 100; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. Introduction, xvii; and compare Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” ii.
[60] “Folk-lore,” i. 157; Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” ii. 78.
[61] “Hoshangâbâd Settlement Report,” 287.
[62] Malcolm, “Central India,” ii. 212 sq.
[63] “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 39, 157.
[64] Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 199.
[65] Chevers, “Indian Medical Jurisprudence,” 546 sq.
[66] Ibid., 12, note, 14, note, 393, 488, 492, note, 493, 514; Ball, “Jungle Life,” 115 sq.; “Calcutta Review,” v. 52.
[67] “Folk-lore,” ii. 293; Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 315.
[68] Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 113.
[69] Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 172, 175, with note; ii. 41; Sir W. Scott, “Letters on Demonology,” 68 sq.
[70] Campbell, “Notes,” 141.
[71] “Eastern India,” ii. 108, 445.
[72] Gubernatis, “Zoological Mythology,” ii. 202; Growse, “Mathura,” 53.
[73] “Oudh Gazetteer,” iii. 480.
[74] Hartland, “Science of Fairy Tales,” 270 sqq.
CHAPTER VI.
SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.
Ἐν δ’ ἐτίθει νειὸν μαλακὴν πίειραν ἄρουραν,
Εὐρεῖαν, τρίπολον· πολλοὶ δ’ ἀποτῆρες ἐν αὐτῇ
Ζεύγεα δινεύοντες ἐλάστρεον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα.
Iliad, xviii. 541–43.
The subject of rural festivals is much too extensive for treatment in a limited space. Here reference will be made only to a few of those ceremonies which illustrate the principles recently elucidated from the folk-lore of Europe by Messrs. Frazer, Gomme, and Mannhardt.[1]