[24] For an account of the animal fights before Lord W. Bentinck in 1831
see Mrs. F. Parks, Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 176 ff.; W. Knighton,
Private Life of an Eastern King, p. 147 ff.
[25] Nauroz. Specially a Persian feast: see Sir J. Malcolm, History of Persia,[2] ii. 341 n., 404; S.G.W. Benjamin, Persia and the Persians, p. 198; O.J. Wills, The Land of the Lion and the Sun, ed. 1891, p. 48.
[26] Nauroz mubarak.
[27] Basant or spring feast, held at the vernal equinox.
[28] Sawan, the fourth month of the Hindu year, July-August.
[29] The feast is held in honour of the mythical Khwaja Khizr, 'the green one', a water spirit identified with the Prophet Elisha (see Sale on Koran, xviii. 63). The launching of the little boats is, in essence, a form of magic intended to carry away the evils which menace the community, and to secure abundant rainfall.
[30] Ilyas ki kishti.
[31] This is known as Hilal.
[32] The Semites, like other races, believed in the influence of the moon. 'The sun shall not strike thee by day, nor the moon by night' (Ps. cxxi. 6). It was believed to cause blindness and epilepsy. Sir J.G. Frazer has exhaustively discussed the question of the influence of the moon. The harvest moon, in particular, brings fertility, and hears the prayers of women in travail: the moon causes growth and decay, and she is dangerous to children. Many practical rules are based on her influence at the various phases (The Golden Bough[3] Part I, vol. ii, p. 128; Part IV, vol. ii, p. 132 ff.).
[33] 'The sixth house is Scorpio, which is that of slaves and servants, and of diseases' (Abul Fazl, Akbarnama, tr. H. Beveridge, ii. 12).