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6,852 published records with substantive text · Page 81 of 143
More dreaded even than the ghost of a man who has been killed by a tiger is the Churel, a name which has been connected with that of the Chûhra or sweeper caste
Read record →The Churel, who corresponds to the Jakhâî, Jokhâî, Mukâî, or Navalâî of Bombay, [565] is the ghost of a woman dying while pregnant, or on the day of the child's birth, or within the prescribed period of impurity
Read record →Leland: [579] "A traveller in Persia has observed that the patterns of carpets are made intricate, so that the Evil Eye, resting upon them and following the design, loses its power
Read record →This illustrates another principle about ghosts, that mutilation during life is avoided, as being likely to turn the spirit into a malignant ghost after death
Read record →In the folk-tales of Somadeva we have more than one reference to a cave which leads to Pâtâla, "the rifted rock whose entrance leads to hell." Others are the entrance to fairy palaces, where dwell the Asura maidens beneath the earth
Read record →Spencer suggests that the respect for caves is based on the early practice of burial in such places
Read record →When the Korwas of Mirzapur have to enter a cave, they first arm themselves with a rude spear and axe as a protection against Bhûts
Read record →In connection with these treasure guardians, we reach another cycle of folk-lore legends, that of gifts or robberies from fairy-land
Read record →Of the same type are the usual tales of the fairy gifts
Read record →In another tale of the same kind, the cowherd tends the cow of the fairy, and, following the animal into a cave, receives some golden wheat
Read record →Thus with all Hindus two names are given to children, one secret and used only for ceremonial purposes, and the other for ordinary use
Read record →We shall return to this in dealing with the wonderful Momiâî story
Read record →a burning coal being passed across her back and under her belly immediately after calving
Read record →The real reason is probably a very interesting survival of folk-thought
Read record →In India iron rings are constantly worn as an amulet against disease, as in Ireland an iron ring on the fourth finger cures rheumatism
Read record →The common brass Lota is always carried about by a man during the period of mourning as a preservative against the evil spirits which surround him until the ghost of the dead man is finally laid
Read record →ould bring the influence of some foreign evil spirit back with her, will, before entering her own homestead, pass seven little stones seven times round the head of the baby, and throw them in different directions, so as to pass away any evil that may have been
Read record →The fear which spirits feel for leather is also illustrated by the procedure of the Drâvidian Baiga, who flagellates people suffering from demoniacal possession with a tawse or leathern strap
Read record →A man with only one eye is dreaded because he is naturally envious of those with good sight, and he is proverbially a scoundrel
Read record →One of the most valuable of these protectives is the magic circle, which appears in various forms through the whole range of folk-lore
Read record →We have constant references to the same custom in the folk-tales
Read record →The same idea appears in the magic circle used as an ordeal, or to compel payment of a debt
Read record →The belief in the efficacy of the magic circle accounts for a variety of other customs
Read record →nd and cold, attacked by beasts of prey, stumbling through thorns and filth, until he at last reaches the dread river Vaitaranî, which rolls its flood of abominations between him and the other shore
Read record →on ground, if it is the master of the house who has died, the ladder leading up to the house is thrown down, and they must effect an entrance by cutting a hole in the back wall and so creeping up
Read record →The most elaborate precautions are, however, devoted to barring out the ghost and preventing its return to its former home
Read record →Another means is to bar the return of the ghost in a physical way
Read record →In the case of the Dhângars and Basors, both menial tribes in the North-Western Provinces, we come across an usage which appears to be of a very primitive type and to be intended to secure the same object of barring the return of the ghost
Read record →urn from a funeral must touch the Lingam, fire, cowdung, a grain of barley, a grain of sesame and water--"all," as Professor De Gubernatis says, "symbols of that fecundity which the contact with a corpse might have destroyed." [166] The real motive is doubtles
Read record →In Upper India, among the lower Hindu castes, when the mourners return after the ceremony, they bathe, water being a scarer of ghosts, and at the house door they touch a stone, cowdung, iron, fire, and water, which have been placed outside the house in readine
Read record →This sitting in silence after the funeral is commonly explained merely as a mark of sympathy for the bereaved relatives, but an analogous custom in Ireland leads to the inference that the real reason may be to give the ghost time to depart, and not to interrup
Read record →Thus, after the cremation the officiating Brâhman touches fire and bathes in order to purify himself and bar the return of the ghost; and the relative who lights the funeral pyre keeps a piece of iron with him, and goes about with a brass drinking vessel in hi
Read record →Among other devices to bar the return of the spirit may be noted the custom after a death in the family of preparing a resting-place for the ghost, until on the completion of the prescribed funeral rites it is admitted to the company of the sainted dead
Read record →The same idea of barring the return of the ghost accounts for the tombstone and cairn
Read record →The Korkus of Hoshangâbâd have a remarkable method of laying the ghost
Read record →Vishnu, according to the old story, took two hairs, a white and a black one, and these became Balarâma and Krishna
Read record →Another means for conciliating the spirit of the dead man is to lay up food for its use
Read record →But while it is expedient by some or other of these devices to bar or lay the ghost, or prevent its return by providing for its journey to, and accommodation in the next world, some tribes have a custom of making arrangements to bring back the soul of the dece
Read record →Amongst some Hindus, on the tenth night after the death of a person, he who fired the funeral pyre is required to sift some ashes, near which a lamp is placed, and the whole covered with a basket
Read record →After a death all the household earthen pots are broken and replaced
Read record →In the well-known tale in the Arabian Nights the demon is shut up in a jar under the seal of the Lord Solomon, as in one of the German tales the Devil is shut up in a crevice in a pine tree, and the ghost of Major Weir of Edinburgh resided in his walking-stick
Read record →Most of the ghosts whom we have been as yet considering are malignant
Read record →Hence most local shrines are constructed under trees, and in one particular tree, the Bîra, the jungle tribes of Mirzapur locate Bâgheswar, the tiger godling, one of their most dreaded deities
Read record →But there is another variety of Brâhman ghost who is much dreaded
Read record →The patient, or one of his relations, goes to a seer and brings the seer to his house, frankincense is burnt, and the sick man's spirit comes into the seer's body
Read record →"The seer is again called, and his familiar spirit comes into him
Read record →In Yorkshire it used to be the custom for "farmers to have whip-stocks of rowan tree wood, and it was held that thus supplied, they were safe against having their draught fixed, or their horses made restive by a witch
Read record →They tell of a man who did this near Sahâranpur, who when taken to his cremation, no sooner was the light set to his pyre than he got up and walked home, and is alive to this day
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