In the Eastern Panjâb grain must not be measured on the day of the new or full moon, and Saturday is a bad day for it. It must be begun at dawn, or sunset, or midnight, when the Bhûts are otherwise engaged. Four men go inside the enclosure line with a wooden measuring vessel, and no one must come near them till they have finished. They sit facing the north and spread a cloth on the ground. One fills the measure from the heap with the winnowing fan, another empties it on the cloth, substituting an empty one for it. The man who has the measure puts down for every measure filled a small heap of grains of corn, by which the account is kept. Perfect silence must be observed till the whole operation is finished, and especially all counting aloud of the number of measures must be avoided. But when once the grain is measured, it is safe from the Evil Eye; the people are at liberty to quarrel over the division of it.[58]
The same rule of silence often appears in the custom of Europe. Favete linguis was the principle on such occasions in Rome. So in the “Tempest” Prospero says,—
“Hush and be mute,
Or else our spell is marred.”
In the Highlands, on New Year’s Day, a discreet person is sent to draw a pitcher of water from the ford, which is drunk next day as a charm against the spell of witchcraft, the malignity of Evil Eyes, and the activity of all infernal agency. So the baker who makes the bannocks on Shrove Tuesday must be mute as a stone; the cake on St. Mark’s Eve must be made in silence, and the same is the rule on St. Faith’s Day.[59]
The same rule of secrecy and silence is observed in the worship of Dulha Deo. Among the Gaiti Gonds, their great festival is held after the ingathering of the rice harvest, when they proceed to a dense part of the jungle, which no woman is permitted to enter, and where, to represent the great god, a copper coin has been hung up, enclosed in a joint of bamboo. Arriving at the spot, they take down the copper god in his case, and selecting a small area about a foot square, they lay on it the copper coin, before which they arrange as many small heaps of uncooked rice as there are deities worshipped by them. The chickens brought for sacrifice are loosed and permitted to feed on the rice, after which they are killed and their blood sprinkled between the copper coin and the rice. Goats are also offered, and their blood presented in the same manner. Until prohibited by the Hindus, sacrifices of cows were also common. On the blood some country spirits is poured as a libation to their deities. The copper coin is now lifted, replaced in its bamboo case, which is shut up with leaves, wrapped up in grass, and returned to its place in the tree, to remain there till it is required on the following year.[60]
The Holî: Its Origin.
The most famous and interesting of the village festivals is the Holî, which is held in the early spring, at the full moon of Phâlgun. One account of its origin describes it as founded in honour of a female demon or Râkshasî called Dundhas, “she who would destroy many.”
Another account connects the observance with the well-known legend of Hiranya-kasipu, “golden-dressed,” and his son Prahlâda. Hiranya-kasipu was, it is said, a Daitya, who obtained from Siva the sovereignty of the three worlds for a million years, and persecuted his pious son Prahlâda because he was such a devoted worshipper of Vishnu. Finally the angry god, in his Nara-sinha or man-lion incarnation, slew the sinner.