“Convulsions in a child are sometimes due to the influence of the fairies.” Mooney describes a cure effected by a mother who “picked from the roadside ten small white pebbles, known as ‘fairy stones.’ On reaching home, she put nine of these stones into a vessel of urine and threw the tenth into the fire. She also put into the vessel some chicken-dung and three sprigs of a plant (probably ivy or garlic) which grew on the roof above the door. She then stripped the child and threw into the fire the shirt and other garments which were worn next the skin. The child was then washed from head to foot, wrapped in a blanket and put to bed. There were nine hens and a rooster on the rafters above the door. In a short time the child had a violent fit and the nine hens dropped dead upon the floor. The rooster dropped down from his perch, crew three times, and then flew again to the rafters. If the woman had put the tenth stone with the others, he would have dropped dead with the hens. The child was cured.”—(“Med. Mythol. of Ireland,” James Mooney, “Amer. Phil. Soc.” 1887.)
Mooney remarks upon the above: “This single instance combines in itself a number of important features in connection with the popular mythology; the dung, the urine, the plant above the door, the chickens, the fire and the garment worn next the skin, and introduces also a new element into the popular theory of disease, viz.: the idea of vicarious cure, or rather of vicarious sacrifice. This belief, which is general, is that no one can be cured of a dangerous illness, unless, as the people express it, ‘something is left in its place’ to suffer the sickness and death.”—(Idem.)
In the case of a “changeling child,” the mother was ordered to leave it “on the dung-hill to cry and not to pity it.”—(Hazlitt’s edition of “Fairy Tales,” London, 1875, p. 372.)
“At Sucla-Tirtha, in India, an earthen pot containing the accumulated sins of the people, is annually set adrift on the river.”—(“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, p. 192, vol. ii.)
See notes under “Catamenial Fluid,” from Etmuller.
XLVI.
THE USE OF THE LINGAM IN INDIA.
In connection with the Lingamic ritual in India, there remain usages now degenerated into symbolism, which cannot be interpreted in any other sense than as “survivals” of very obscene and disgusting practices in the primitive life of that region. In describing the sacrifice called Poojah, Maurice says: “The Abichegam makes a part of the Poojah. This ceremony consists in pouring milk upon the lingam. This liquor is afterwards kept with great care, and some drops are given to dying people that they may merit the delights of the Calaison.” The “salagram of the Vishnuites is the same as the lingam of the Seevites.” “Happy are those favored devotees who can quaff the sanctified water in which either has been bathed.”—(“Ind. Ant.” vol. v. pp. 146, 179.)
Dulaure describes the rites of the Cochi-couris, in which the sacred water of the Ganges is first poured upon the lingam; it is then preserved to be dealt out in drops to the faithful; it is specially serviceable in soothing the last hours of the dying. The Lingam is the Phallic symbol. The water or milk sanctified by it may represent a former employment of urine, such, as will be shown, as prevailed all over Europe. The use of lingam water is perhaps analogous to that of mistletoe water, previously noted.