Tool Fetishes.
Next comes the worship of the tool fetish, which, according to Sir A. Lyall, is “the earliest phase or type of the tendency which later on leads those of one guild or walk in life to support and cultivate one god, who is elected in lieu of the individual trade fetishes melted down to preside over their craft or trade interests.”[108]
A good example of this is the pickaxe fetish of the Thags.
When Kâlî refused to help them in the burial of their victims she gave them one of her teeth for a pickaxe, and the hem of her lower garment for a noose. Hence the pickaxe was venerated by the Thags. Its fabrication was superintended with the utmost care, and it was consecrated with many ceremonies. A lucky day was selected, and a smith was appointed to forge it with the most profound secrecy. The door was closed against all intruders; the leader never left the forge while the manufacture was going on; and the smith was allowed to do no other work until this was completed. Next came the consecration. This was done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, and care was taken that the shadow of no living thing fell upon the axe. The consecrator sat with his face to the west, and received the implement in a brass dish. It was then washed in water which was allowed to fall into a pit made for the purpose. Then further ablutions followed, the first in sugar and water, the second in sour milk, and the third in spirits. The axe was then marked from the head to the point with seven spots of red lead, and replaced on the brass dish with a cocoanut, some cloves, white sandalwood, and other articles.
A fire was next made of cowdung and the wood of the Mango and Ber tree. All the articles deposited on the brass plate, with the exception of the cocoanut, were thrown into the fire, and when the flame rose the Thag priest passed the pickaxe with both hands seven times through the fire. The cocoanut was then stripped of its husk and placed on the ground. The officiant, holding the axe by the point, asked: “Shall I strike?” The bystanders assented, and he then broke the cocoanut with the blunt end of the weapon, exclaiming, “All hail, Devî! Great Mother of us all!” The spectators responded, “All hail, Devî, and prosper the Thags.” If the cocoanut was not broken at one blow, all the labour was lost; the goddess was considered unpropitious, and the entire ceremony had to be repeated. The broken shell and kernel of the cocoanut were then thrown into the fire, the pickaxe wrapt in white cloth was placed on the ground towards the west, and all present prostrated themselves before it.[109]
Here we have another example of magic in its sympathetic form, the use of sundry spirit scarers, which have been already discussed, and the cocoanut representing an actual human victim.