In the Punjab, the work of digging a well should begin on Sunday. On the previous Saturday night little bowls of water are placed round the proposed site, and the one which dries up the least marks the best site for the well. The circumference is then marked and the work of digging commenced, the central lump of earth being left intact. This clod of earth is cut out last and it is called Khwajaji, after Khwaja Khizr, the water-saint, and is worshipped. If it breaks, it is a bad omen, and a new site is selected a week later.
In the north-east a Pandit fixes the auspicious moment for sinking a well. The owner then worships Gauri, Ganesha, Shesha Naga, the world-serpent, the earth, the spade and the nine planets. Then facing in the direction in which, according to the directions of the Pandit, Shesha Naga is supposed to be lying at the time, he cuts five clods with the spade. When the workmen reach the point at which the wooden well-cush has to be fixed, the owner smears the cush in five places with red powder and tying dub-grass and a sacred thread to it, lowers it into its place. A fire sacrifice is then offered, and Brahmins are fed. When the well is ready, cow-dung, cow urine, milk, butter and Ganges water, leaves of sacred Tulsi and honey are thrown into the water before it is used. In the Konkan a golden cow is thrown into a newly built well as an offering to the water deities.[54]
But, according to Crookes, no well is considered lucky until the Salagrama, or the spiral ammonite sacred to Vishnu, is solemnly wedded to the Tulsi or basil plant, representing the garden or field which the well is intended to water. The rite is performed according to the standard marriage formula: the relations are assembled; the owner of the garden represents the bridegroom, while a kinsman or his wife stands for the bride. Gifts are given to Brahmins, a feast is held in the garden, and both the garden and the well may then be used without any danger.
CHAPTER XVI.
DECORATIONS AND OFFERINGS.
We have seen that the Indian method of venerating a well was to crown it with flowers, to cover it with jalis or trellis work of flowers, to illumine it with ghee-lamps placed in niches specially made for the purpose and to strew the pavement with cocoanuts, betel-nuts, sugar and sweets and milk and ghee and to smear it with red lead. We have also noticed that floral decoration and garland-dressing is an act of simple reverence, being a survival of the earlier and more primitive practices and ceremonials. The other offerings, however, particularly cocoanut, and the practice of smearing the pavement with red lead point to beliefs associating spirits with water, and these are survivals of the ancient cult of human and animal sacrifices offered to the water-spirit. The cocoanut, resembling a human head, is accepted by the spirits, in lieu of a human being, similarly red lead does duty for the blood of animal victims. The Germans hoodwink the water-spirit with another curious substitute and that is a loaf of bread. It is the practice to throw a loaf into the water at Rotenburg on the Neckar. If this offering is not given, the river-spirit would take away a man. The practice of placing lamps inside the well also points to spirit-beliefs. The lights, it is hoped, would scare away evil spirits from the water.
There is enough anthropological evidence to show that at one time human sacrifices were offered in east and west alike to the spirits of fire, earth and water. Numerous authorities may be cited. The Indian practices are well known. For continental examples we may select only one from Sir James Frazer’s Golden Bough concerning the practice of burning humans beings in the fires. The most unequivocal traces of human sacrifices offered on these occasions are those which, about a hundred years ago, still lingered at the Beltane fires in the Highlands of Scotland, that is, among a Celtic people who, situated in a remote corner of Europe and almost completely isolated from foreign influence, had till then conserved their old heathenism better than any other people in the west of Europe. “It is significant,” says Sir James Frazer, “that human sacrifices by fire are known, on unquestionable evidence, to have been systematically practised by the Celts. The earliest description of these sacrifices has been bequeathed to us by Julius Cæsar. As conqueror of the hitherto independent Celts of Gaul, Cæsar had ample opportunity of observing the national Celtic religion and manners, while these were still fresh and crisp from the native mint and had not yet been fused in the melting-pot of Roman civilization.... The following seem to have been the main outlines of the custom. Condemned criminals were reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great festival which took place once in every five years. The more there were of such victims, the greater was believed to be the fertility of the land. If there were not enough criminals to furnish victims, captives taken in war were immolated to supply the deficiency. When the time came, the victims were sacrificed by the Druids or priests, some they shot down with arrows, some they impaled, and some they burned alive in the following manner. Colossal images of wicker-work or of wood and grass were constructed; these were filled with live men, cattle and animals of other kinds; fire was then applied to the images, and they were burned with their living contents. Such were the great festivals held once every five years. But besides these quinquennial festivals, celebrated on so grand a scale and with, apparently, so large an expenditure of human life, it seems reasonable to suppose that festivals of the same sort, only on a lesser scale, were held annually, and that from these annual festivals are lineally descended some at least of the fire-festivals which, with their traces of human sacrifices, are still celebrated year by year in many parts of Europe.”