“For what, I pray thee?”
“For your broken skin.”
In the folk-tales the deserted wife sweeps the ground round a plantain tree and it gives her a blessing.[55]
The Pomegranate.
So with the pomegranate, which among the Pârsis of Bombay is held in high respect. Its twigs were used to make the sacred broom, its seeds, in order to scare evil spirits, were thrown over the child when it was girt with the sacred thread, and its juice was squeezed into the mouth of the dying.[56] In its fruit Anâr Shâhzâdî, the Princess Pomegranate, commonly lies hidden. But it is in Upper India considered unlucky to have such a tree in the house, as it is envious and cannot bear that any one should be lovelier than itself.[57]
The Tamarind.
The Orâons of Bengal revere the tamarind and bury their dead under its shade.[58] One special rite among the Drâvidian races is the Imlî ghontnâ or “the grinding of the tamarind,” when the mother of the bridegroom grinds on the family curry stone some pods of the tamarind. The tree was a special favourite with the early Musalmân conquerors, and the finest specimens of it will be found in their cemeteries and near their original settlements.