THE PEOPLE

HINDUS

Religion : To give a correct sketch of the religion of the Hindus of Akola district is rather difficult. One constantly comes across ideas drawn from the classical teachings of India, but they not only seem vague and confused but also are often buried under the habitual worship of local saints or divinities and under a mass of superstition. Religion touches every detail in the life of a Hindu, sometimes with admirable effect, but sometimes in mere formalism. In almost every village, new temples are built, but old men of the middle castes say, "A man's heart is the proper temple. Now a days people make a show of buildings of bricks and mortar but there is no temple in their hearts." The Gita would be readily acknowledged as a religious authority and sometimes traces of its descriptions of a Brahman's ideal viz., Restraint of spirit and senses, mortification, purity, patience, uprightness, knowledge, discernment, and belief are noticed, but the standard is a very high one as described in the verse 42 of the 18th Canto of the Gita. The Kshatriya ideal, given in the next verse, is as follows.—

"Valour, heroic temper, constancy, skill, steadfastness in strife, largesse and princeliness are the natural virtues of Kshatriya". But these are virtues far beyond the ambition of an ordinary Hindu. In a small village, one may hear the teaching of the Vedanta, the greatest of Indian philosophies. On the other hand, a Brahman of some education from Akola itself may be ignorant of both the sound and the idea of the fundamental, "Aham Brahmasmi, Tat tvam asi". In fact very few people pretend to any thought of philosophy. The ordinary, intelligent but practically uneducated Hindu would apparently believe in both that there are many gods and that there is only one god but would humbly abstain from a definite theory to reconcile the two ideas. He believes in an absolute karma whereby act and consequence attend the soul on earth, in heaven and hell remorselessly through an endless cycle of births, but sometimes he holds that bad means are justified by a good end, or he trusts to expiatory sacrifices or prayashchitta or some other rites. Indeed he often feels that fate dictates not only punishment but the very evil that is to be punished. In his religious thought, bhakti occupies a very large place, with the meanings apparently of faith, worship and the reaching out of the human to the divine. People in remote villages say that it is chiefly on account of this vague bhakti that red shendur is applied to prominent stones or trees. Worship is sometimes done for definite material ends and sometimes as the unqualified expression of a powerful instinct. Satyanarayana, satyavinayaka, ananta and other pujas are illustrations of this.

Religious Practices. In the actual performance of religious duties a combination of correct ritual with faith is apparently imperative. Certain ceremonies are daily performed in the house and a pious man even goes to the temple every day. A Brahman of the older generation and of moderate education would daily repeat hymns and psalms from the Vedas or the whole of the Gita or perhaps only the 15th chapter of it, though he may not know Sanskrit, much less Vedic Sanskrit. Thus there is a great deal of uncomprehending worship. The same religion, however, produces very distinct practical consequences. Hinduism is as a rule extraordinarily tolerant, permitting both the greatest variations of creed within its own limits and viewing with calmness yet other ideas from other religions. It enjoins a very wide charity, so that travellers can almost always secure food and lodging and support is almost always provided for the destitute and the afflicted. Brahmans have, of course, the first claim. It is not quite rare to meet a party of Brahmans more than half of them women and infants making a four months' pilgrimage on foot, from Allahabad to Nasik and living wholly on charity. Asked how they managed about expenses, the reply would come simply, "We are Brahmans." That means they were getting free food everywhere. Ail religious mendicants share in this charity and sometimes in a village, two or three wait at doors, a few yards apart, till their dole is given. Sometimes, there is a rest house especially laid aside for pious pilgrims. Occasionally, a wealthy man supports all such comers. Bairagis, Sanyasis, Gosains and the like come to stay in peace for a month or two at his rest house in the course of their travels. Sometimes, a holy man who has settled near a village collects subscriptions to build or repair a temple or he is pressed to come and take charge of one, or become its pujari (worshipper) and guru, (religious guide) for the people. People show an extraordinary degree of respect to a man who has given up all worldly cares to lead a religious life. To go naked about is perhaps one of the most compelling proofs of complete devotion and renunciation. The popular attitude does offer some temptation to the hypocritical but one living in a small village is under very close scrutiny. Hypocrisy would be discovered except in a constant wanderer. In former times, this wandering religious element was far more striking. There were times when naked Gosains, Bairagis wearing only a langoti and Manabhavs in plain black would come in bodies of hundreds, with horses and camels and pass slowly through the country at the cost of the people.

One saint in the neighbourhood, Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon was so deeply reverenced that a Brahman of position and education bowed his forehead to the dust, before him and did not dream of even an acknowledgement. Gradually, miraculous stories came to be told about distinguished Sadhus and some of them were worshipped even before their death. Tombs at which saints are worshipped are scattered all over Akola district and are particularly numerous in Akot tahsil. The chief forms of worship seem to be, firstly, to vow some small offering in case a certain prayer is granted and secondly, to attend an annual festival in honour of the saint. Different tombs have reputations for different kinds of virtue some curing snake-bites, some fever, and some possession by an evil spirit. An extraordinary variety of miracles is attributed to those saints. The Hindus feel no reluctance to worship at a Muhammedan tomb.

Among lesser sadhus stood the labourer of Wyala, who according to tradition was canonised for two reasons, that he once collected thorns for a fence by setting his bare foot upon them without being hurt and that he was seen worshipping at the same time in two temples that were five miles apart. The power inherited from him enabled his son to cast evil spirits. Among the greater ones was Narsingboa of Akot whose casual word was said to have preserved a corpse from dissolution for four years at the end of which time, it ate a piece of bread. Shah Daval of Govardha had a characteristic, though mixed, reputation. Nothing is known of his life except that he was one of the two of Muhammedan aulias who settled respectively at Govardha, Uprai in Daryapur tahsil and Burhanpur. A man who wished to beget a son went to Goverdha and tied a stone to a string fastened around the inside door of a tomb. Later he brought the child, cut his hair, distributed sweetmeats of the weight of the hair and finally tied it up instead of the stone. Men possessed of demons and men and women suffering from various diseases came and lived there till they were relieved though chudhels are apparently not expelled from women. The cure may take a month or more but the patients must live meanwhile by begging from door to door with the cry, "Dam, dam, Shadalboachi Gada" or "Dom Dom", a well known cry of pilgrims. Resident Mujavars, attendants, are in charge of the tomb and worship every day. A fair attended by all castes is held every Thursday and Kolis come on pilgrimage from a distance. The worship of these saints occupies a large place in the life of an ordinary family. It is not possible to assert, exactly how far the stories about them are accepted, but there is certainly a great deal of religious credulity.

Various other figures besides sadhus stand out as important in the religious world. A really important place, such as the headquarters of a tahsil, contains one or more shastris and perhaps an agnihotri. Some shasiris are Medic, knowing one or more of the Vedas (either by heart or by meaning) and some are Dharmashastris, knowing other sacred writings who have an unequalled knowledge of the demands of religion. An agnihotri performs three times a day the homa sacrifice. He is distinguished by his piety and devotion, but need not be necessarily learned. In the rainy season, a shastri, a puranik or perhaps the local school master is often engaged in the larger villages to recite and explain some purans. In a place like Akola, ten to twelve such courses are conducted in the different temples, a puran, appropriate to the particular deity being usually chosen. Sometimes a haridas or kathekari conducts a katha which is a preaching service diversified with music and the calling of 'Rama, Rama' or 'Krishna, Krishna' or 'Hara Hara Mahadeva' in between. There are also bhajan parties where the congregation has no official leader. They chant a series of texts, each man keeping time with a pair of jhanj, tal or cymbals. In villages, two dindi parties are formed of which one leads and the others respond. Brahmans also have a dharmadhikari who is a final authority on questions of religion and Shankaracharya with power to punish for breaches of caste rules and the like. The dharmadhikari holds his office by hereditary right, but takes expert advice if he himself is not learned enough. In the single town of Bashim there used to be nine such representatives. The Shankaracharya, however, is required to be personally qualified for his post. The middle castes such as Kunbis have Brahman joshis to conduct most of their ceremonies; these are hereditary officers and need to know only a single granth, book, the Shudra Kamlakara. They are supported partly by fees for the particular ceremonies and partly by haks, annual contributions from the people. A joshi on the Purna river, according to the old Gazetteer, told the writer that some of the Kunbis in his neighbourhood were beginning to do without a joshi at their ceremonies, but this was probably a trivial movement due to personal disagreement. Besides these officers, there are pujaris attached to many tombs and temples. They are often Brahmans from different parts of India, sometimes having a hereditary title of svasthanika, but more frequently Gosains. In the latter case, it is usual for the worshipper who is getting old to take a boy, perhaps a Kunbi; and train him to the succession- The temple buildings are likely to include a walled compound enclosing a pinda, a shrine of god who is mostly Mahadeva worshipped under some such local names as Kateshvara which is a dwelling house for the worshipper and ten or a dozen tombs of former worshippers, the main building being called matha. No attempt is made to follow any particular plan; the matha occasionally occupies part or the whole of an ordinary village fort. These Gosains both perform daily worship of the God on behalf of the village-bathing, feeding and adoring him and are called guru by the people. They almost always recognise the Mahant of Mahur on the Penganga river as their head and both they and their flocks make pilgrimages to Mahur, to Sahasrakunda near by and perhaps to Umagdeo, 20 miles further east.

Practices at Festivals.—Festivals are also an important feature of the ordinary Hindu religion. They are very frequent, are given considerable religious value and are enjoyable social events. They may be divided roughly into two classes. In the former are the anniversaries of local gods or saints when pilgrimages, big or petty. are made to particular temples or tombs. In the latter class are greater festivals of Hinduism. Pandharpur is the place of pilgrimage most frequented by people from Vidarbha. Pilgrims wear a necklace of beads made from the roots of the tulsi plant. During the festival caste restrictions are set aside in the one detail that no one is defiled by the touch by a person of even the lowest caste. An annual fair is held at the tomb of every saint whose memory has any vitality and at a great many temples, the number of visitors varying from a score to some thousands. There might be half a dozen or a dozen of these annual festivals in a village that had no tomb or temple of any note. In some villages the festival has some special feature as fire-walking or the apparent relics of human sacrifice or self torture. Fire-walking appears to be very rare but is said to exist in at least three of the four Berar districts. According to the old Gazetteer of Akola, one case that was noticed was at Malsud in the south of Balapur tahsil. An account of it was given by the village officers of Malsud and some neighbouring villages. The village contains a temple dedicated to Supoba, an ansha, incarnation, of Mahadeva and a Dandipunav festival is held in February-March for 15 days which ends at Shivaratra. On the first Friday, a dongar (a kind of mandap, phata or mandir), booth or pavilion is made. Two days of worship follow and on the Monday, a lahad, pit, is dug which is five cubits in length, one cubit in breadth and a span or two in depth. This is filled with wood of all kinds; oil, contributed by all the villagers according to their means is poured on it and the whole is set on fire. The priests of the temple are Hatkars and they walk the length of this pit while the fire is still burning. If a man has a wife by the lagna, marriage, she accompanies him but a wife by mohatur or pat or gandharva marriage does not in 1908, five couples performed the ceremony walking slowly along the pit to the temple, praying, and then returning. The chief narrator of this account was the patel (Hatkar) of that village. He said the devotees were preserved from harm only by faith and that it was believed that if any one but them attempted the feat, his family would die out. The ashes of the fire are considered to cure snake bite without any muntras being recited. The chief day of the festival is a Friday, when bhandara, a religious meal is given. Then the worshippers, forming groups of perhaps 50 at a time hold out their hands with the back upwards and the chief pujari of the temple gives five blows with a sat, whip of cord, to those near him and is considered to have struck them all. On certain occasions practices which appear to be relics of human sacrifice or self-torture are done and middle-aged men in some villages can remember seeing self-torture done in earnest- People take small children before the goddess Asra at Donad on the Katepurna river in Akola tahsil. A good swimmer swims across the river with the child in a cradle and finally the child is taken out of the cradle and the cradle is allowed to float down the stream. People say that the child used to be drowned at one time. In some places a childless couple vow that if a child is granted to it, it shall be devoted to the goddess, Devi. In fact, they take it before the shrine dressed in good clothes and leave only the garments there. At Kurankhed in Akola tahsil, people used to take a vow to the goddess Devi in the village and if the prayer was granted, they would cut oft the tip of an index finger and offer it to her. An image made of kneaded flour is sometimes laid before Marima, the goddess of cholera, especially by Mahars and other backward caste people.

Besides the festivals with a chiefly local interest, there are those that celebrate the great days of the Hindu calendar. Every day of the week is dedicated to some deity or other. Thus Sunday is dedicated to Narayana, Monday to Mahadeva and his local incarnation Supoba, Tuesday to the goddess Devi Bhavani and Asra and Wednesday to Walkeshvara, Vithoba, and Thursday to Datta or Shah Daval Pir, a Muhammedan saint whose remains were buried at different villages, Friday to Balaji, Khandoba and Supoba again and Saturday to Maruti. Some pious people fast on a particular god's day and if they worship equally more than one god, they may fast on even four days a week. Every Brahman has his own unlucky day in the week called ghatvara or varjyavara a day of loss or prohibition stated in the horoscope caste at birth. Besides, there are two unlucky days for every one, Tuesday and Saturday. A man should not get shaved on those days and fever beginning on one of these days is thought especially dangerous.

It is difficult to draw a line between what are religious ideas according to the people and what can fittingly be called magical. It is also difficult to say how far particular beliefs are held now-The degree of beliefs varies greatly from one individual to another and the details equally differ. Some of the ideas and observances are held universally while certain others are said to have died out. Perhaps only a few people and not whole villages entertain them, yet all that will be mentioned hereafter are collected within the district itself. People are generally unwilling to discuss some of them. partly because they are ashamed of being considered superstitious and partly, it would appear, from a positive fear of black magic. A number of people profess a universal scepticism of the superstitious as distinguished from religious, but it is generally easy to find wide joints in their armour. Sometimes men of position and intelligence first make a general denial but presently give an earnest exposition of some of the most extreme ideas.

In regard to illness perhaps the most prominent point is the way in which small-pox is regarded. It is hardly looked on as a disease at all, but as a personal visitation of the goddess Devi or Mata. In her honour the patient and his family are all dressed in while, a lota, vessel containing water and aim leaves is fetched by a man who has just bathed and is set at the door for everyone who enters the house to sprinkle himself. In the evenings pots of water are carried to the shrine of Devi and ashes are brought from there and applied to the patient's forehead. Whatever the sick person says is regarded as the word of the goddess. He is given only milk to drink, but if he should ask for some unreasonable food, it would be brought and set before him. Every morning all the members of the family ask each other whether the goddess has spoken to any one during the night, for sometimes she comes in a dream and says that she has taken care of the patient so long but that on a certain night she would leave and they must beware of any other spirit taking possession of him. Music is then kept up every night till, seven or nine days later, the ceremony of recovery is performed. Formal bathing is done on a Tuesday because that is the day sacred to the goddess; she is ceremoniously sent away in a curtailed form directly after the recovery and more fully some months later. The simplest form of the earlier ceremony is to give sugar and balls of jovan flour to a few boys and sprinkle water containing nim leaves over them. The final ceremony is that which would be used for any distinguished human visitor- In cases where so much celebration is not known. one gets at least the central idea of the presence of the goddess. In some educated families also, no medicine would be accepted beyond water in which sacred nim leaves were soaked.

Cholera is supposed to be brought by the same goddess but is not so much linked up with religious ceremonies as smallpox. People in larger villages and towns willingly take medicines for cure. When a village is attacked by cholera, people may sacrifice or turn loose a goat; one ear of the goat is cut off as a mark of its having been sacrificed to the goddess. Sometimes, people collect a subscription and gather in a distant part of the village. Some one, generally a woman and not infrequently a murali, dancing girl, declares that the goddess has entered her body who has been wronged in some way and demands a sacrifice of cocks and goats. The animal is killed by a strong man of good caste on behalf of the patel, who has taken charge of the subscription and water is taken from the place of sacrifice and sprinkled on every house to keep cholera away.

No religious traditions seem to have gathered around plague. The difference in the religious significance of the three diseases, perhaps, reflects in the duration and extent of their ravages in the country. At delivery people put a cane at the head of the bed, an old shoe at the foot, and an iron knife and sickle underneath. The ordinary cure for snake-bite is to have mantras said by some one learned in such matters who may be practically of any caste. He sometimes blows upon the wound and sometimes uses water and it may be necessary to perform further ceremonies on Nagapanchami day. A few shrines, however, exist about the efficacy of which to cure snake-bites, no one in the neighbourhood has the least doubt. The procedure at the different shrines varies. Such shrines exist at Narnala, Shivpur near Bordi, Golegaon in south of Balapur and Kavatha in Murtazapur tahsil. The sacred place at Golegaon is a tomb of Supoba in ruins- It is said to be effective for both man and beast. If there is doubt whether a cow has been bitten by a poisonous snake or not, one pulls out a hair from her tail. When the hair comes off readily, it is a sign that she has been bitten and vice versa. If similar doubt is felt in the case of a human being, four tests are applied: pepper, leaves of the sour lime, those of the nim tree, or panacha vida, (a roll of betel leaves) is put into his mouth. Any one bitten by a poisonous snake is supposed not to distinguish the taste of either of the first three while the fourth when chewed by him fails to turn red. A man at the moment of being bitten puts a stone upon his head and starts for the tomb. If his road passes the temples of Maruti at Alegaon or Golegaon, he must go behind not in front of them. If he cannot walk, he may be carried but not lying on his back. On arrival at the tomb, he must go round it five times against the sun, with the stone still on his head. Then he lies on his face and must pass water, if possible vomit, which empties him of the poison and leaves him cured. One informant, who had himself been through the cure, said that one or two people were bitten every year but in 50 years only four people had died.

A long list of practices and beliefs are naturally connected with agriculture, but these again vary greatly in different parts. In the southern talukas, a white onion and some parched jovari are sometimes applied to cotton seed before sowing it, the idea apparently being that the cotton boll may burst like the opened grain with cotton as white as the onion. In the same part it is considered unlucky to take jovari to the field in a bamboo basket, though this is done in Akot tahsil; it is placed in an earthen pot, white washed and having tied to it with the hair of a woman a large white onion and a piece of leather. Some people merely apply cow's urine to the seed, saying this will prevent the grain turning black; some say that if at the time of sowing, the oxen step across the dhussa, drill, blackness will result. Invocation of Khat Dev, literally the Manure God is widely practised-When the sowing of jovari is finished, the cultivator and his men build a little platform of earth and place upon it five whitewashed stones to represent Khat Dev and to these they offer vermilion, turmeric, sandal paste, and rice. Five holes are dug in front of the god, seed grain is put into them and covered with earth and the god is earnestly invoked to bestow fertility. Some people also sow a few handfuls of grain in the name of evil spirits and of wild animals, saying 'Ek bhag ghe, Vees bhag de take one part and give me twenty. Before cotton-picking begins, unwidowed women take two or three plants and form them into a cradle; they put into this an idol of earth to which they offer curds, boiled rice and incense. Before til is harvested, boiled rice and curds are thrown out on all the four sides of the field. When the medh, a pole, is to be put up in the threshing floor, bread and water are first put in the hole dug for it. The pole itself is often ornamented with a green bough and peacock's feathers, the latter, more particularly for rabi grains. In the evening when the first heap of threshed jovari is to be measured, the master himself should take the tokri, basket, walk once round the heap in the sun and burn incense before the first full basket. Silence should always be kept while jovari is being measured. A scheme called varshul dictates what directions a man may not face when sitting to measure jovari. He is forbidden on Saturday and Monday to face east, and on Thursday south. When all the grain has been threshed and stacked, a goat is sacrificed and its flesh eaten at the threshing floor. A man without a head-dress, a woman who is ceremonially unclean (vitalshi, aspriskya) or any one who has ridden on an elephant or sat in a creaking jhula, swing, at a fair, should not enter a threshing floor. When til has been cut, the plants are first tied in small bundles and then equal numbers of these are bound in large bundles to prevent the grain being wasted. When the crop is large, these bundles are, in some places, made of 40 to 50 small bundles but often they contain only three or four. If the outturn of the second big bundle is greater than that of the first, it is believed that some demon has taken possession of the grain and that the life of the cultivator is in danger. To avert the evil, the grain is sometimes, flung out beside the threshing floor, or burnt, and the work is postponed till the next day. Some people, when threshing, keep the spirit at a distance by eating vadas made of lumps of ground pulse fried in oil or ghee. If the outturn of any crop is amazingly high, people sometimes sacrifice a goat but they complain that the circumstances very seldom arise. When til is very good, the sacrifice is sometimes made by goats being turned loose in the fields: they are said to die on account of the daitya, the evil in the crop, but no doubt, they also suffer from over-eating. Finally, though the floor is carefully hardened and care is taken to prevent uncleanness, some of the jovari is mixed with earth. This is cleaned and kept and eaten in the family of the cultivator because it is said to bring barkat i. e., prosperity.

Rain charms. Rain charms arc numerous, most of them Oeing intended to bring rain but some to prevent it. To bring rain, women or in some parts girls make a doll and beat the doll with a broom (a magical implement). Again a brass pot is filled with water and covered with a bag of the plant called akao swallow-wort. A woman quickly turns the pot upside down and puts it on the head of an image of the god Maruti, telling it either to fall on Meskai (a demon goddess) or Maruti; rain will fall if water comes from the pot but not otherwise. A frog is sometimes tied to a stick, covered with nim leaves and taken around the village by scantily clad men and boys. They beg at every house, chanting some such couplet as "Dhondi, Dhondi pani de; Arkya paili jovari de". This means Dhondi, Dhondi give rain and let jovari sell at ten cowries (one-twentyfifth of an anna) per paili. Dhondi probably refers to the Dhonda or Adhika month (intercalary) which comes once every three years and is said to bring deficient rains or may have some less obvious meaning. Sometimes, the frog itself is addressed or a different couplet is sung which ends with Dhonga bhar bhar pani de. This means give rain enough to float a boat. The people throw pots of water over the party and give them jovari which they take to a well and boil it and eat it there. Another plan is to hold a namasaptaha, a seven day service of bhajan; chanting to the clash of cymbals is kept up day and night, round the clock, for seven days. Also every hole in the temple of Mahadeva may be blocked and the temple filled with water so that no part of the idol appears above the surface and this is kept up for four or seven days or the villagers may simply unite to bring vessels of water and pour them out in the temple. Different again is the worship of Gowardhan in which the whole population of a village goes in a body to any hill near by and there worships Gopal Krishna. Govardhan was according to a Puranic story the mountain in Vrindavana which Krishna induced the cowherds and cow-herdesses to worship instead of Indra, whereupon the latter sent a deluge to wash them away, but Krishna supported the hill with all the people below for seven days on his little finger so that they were saved. A gruesome charm by which grain dealers tried to prevent rain was told by an officer of experience. An imitation spinning wheel is made of the bones of a woman who died in child-birth and an old and barren woman is made to turn it against the sun on the bank of a dry watercourse.

Spirits. —There seems to be a universal belief in a supernatural will of, the wisp. A most sceptical man will tell how he was attended by one all through a whole night's journey but was protected from harm by the fact that he never lost courage while others tell of a near relative losing his sanity and dying through the sight. Lights in a graveyard are spirits dancing. A babula, dusty whirlwind, is a spirit and there is a formula to keep it off a house. A spirit called chakva which may take any form, loves to mislead people at night. The victim wanders round and round. utterly incapable of seeing the object of his journey though close to it. If he is thirsty, the chakva may throw him into a well. One remedy is to take off one's turban and shoes, stand on the former and apply a little urine to one's eyes. Otherwise one should simply stand still and wait for morning. A curious account was given by an educated man going from Buldhana to Chikhli, fourteen miles, and being misled the whole night by the voice of his servant, only to find in the morning that the latter had not stirred " out of the house. Elsewhere chakut is an ailment of very rare occurrence in which people especially young men, leave their homes, wander without sense in the jungle for days together. Even by day, a spirit may want the food one was carrying and, therefore, a prudent man would throw a morsel outside at once to satisfy it and prevent further troubles Brahmans when eating their food often throw a little aside for this reason. Possession by a spirit, bhut, in the case of a man and chudel in the case of woman who died in child-birth is generally believed in. The spirit finds easy entrance into the body of any one whose hair is loose and for this reason both men and women are generally careful to keep their hair plaited. A story was told by a retired schoolmaster which perhaps will illustrate the nature of this belief. He said he had never believed any such things till eighteen months ago his daughter-in-law became possessed in his own house. She had for some time been very weak and almost wholly unable to eat, but she had just done a long journey in his company. Suddenly at midnight, the whole manner changed and she became full of energy and ravenously hungry. She declared that she did not know any of the family, gave a detailed description of herself as a woman of another village whom none of them knew and when given food ate enormously, swallowing handful after handful in the twinkling of an eye. Occasional visitations of this sort continued for some hours and then suddenly she began to rave. The spirit at various times gave particulars of its history but these were unfortunately never tested. It was a woman who had died in child-birth and whose husband after promising to remain single, had taken another wife and it has entered the body of this girl one day on the journey mentioned, when her hair was loose. The father-in-law was advised by some to beat her with a shoe and drive the spirit out by force but, he did not do this. He took the girl to, Manbhav shrines, where she generally became very obstreperous and refused the consecrated food which was given her and the possession continued for six months. Finally, his wile remarked that while he had been going to strange gods, he had failed to appeal to the god of his own family, Vyenkatesh Balaji; so for four Fridays he offered special prayer to the god and it happened that the girl then recovered. She died a year later. Some sav that not every woman who dies of child-birth becomes a chudel but those whose character has been bad. A chudel can take absolutely any form but one hears repeatedly that its power and perhaps, even its existence, depend wholly on the mind of the spectator. If he becomes terrified, he is lost; a courageous man might, on the other hand, persuade the chudel to let him cut some of its hair, upon which it would remain in absolute subjection to him as long as the hair was in his possession. Seeing that a chudel has unlimited supernatural powers, this might be made a great source of profit and enjoyment.

Virtues of oil.—Various beliefs centre in the Teli. He never sells any oil 01 the kinds used for condiments while it is actually in process of being pressed, some saying that to do so would cause his own ruin, some that the oil would have magical efficacy to entice people away. These edible oils are not bought or sold on a Saturday (in some places Monday) and a pretty explanation is given. In the war of the Mahabharata, Ashvathama, son of Dronacharya, was caught by the Pandavas and a very precious jewel was taken out of his head, leaving a terrible wound on his head to which he applied oil. He is immortal and still needing the oil, goes begging for it on Saturdays; any one, man, woman, or child, coming on that day, may be Ashvathama from whom no one would demand payment. Another reason given is that Shani, Saturn, is the god of oil and, therefore, it must not be sold on his day. He has a shrine in Akola where people, though they worship every day, offer oil on Saturday. His planet is the star of evil and brings to every one the sadesati, seven and half years of mistortune, which every villager expects. The horoscope cast at birth shows one's ras, zodiacal sign, the relation then subsisting between the moon and the planets. When Saturn is passing through the griha, house, so formed and the houses, on each side, this sadesati will attend the man.

Magic —The skull either of a Teli or of a woman, perferably of the Dhobi caste who died in child-birth is much valued for magical purposes; lemons, coconut, shendur (oxide of mercury), camphor, betelnut, sweetmeats, the liver of an unborn kid, and other things are applied to it with the proper formulae. The stone in a river at which Dhobis wash clothes has curious magical properties; to attain supernatural powers, the disciple is taken there on the Amavasya day and mysterious ceremonies are gone through. Fear or any mistake makes the adventurers the prey of the spirits who surround such a stone. A Dhobi woman, a young girl and a female ass have peculiar properties for the healing of venereal diseases. A magician is called a jadugar or janara 'one who knows' or muth marnara, fist-striker, because when bringing evil upon any one, he shakes his fist towards his enemy as if he were striking him. People sometimes say that the profession has died out, but admit that a member is called in to lay the spirit of a woman who dies in child-birth, limes and other objects being bound up in the clothes in which she is buried or to exorcise such a spirit. In one method of exorcism, whether of a bhut or a chudel, the jadugar makes a heap of various articles worth altogether a few rupees and makes the family sit around it. The limbs of the woman, generally a patient, are tied and her eyes covered and various ceremonies are performed. Presently she is made to eat a little rice and is unbound and beaten, upon which she runs till she is exhausted. The jadugar buries a nail and bursts a lemon at the spot where she falls so confining the spirit to that spot; or he may shut it up in a bottle. The bodies of children born dead, or dying within a few hours of birth used to be buried close to their parents' house possibly to prevent jadugars getting hold of them. For the magician is said to go on a dark night to the grave of a small child and place around it in a continuous line grains of udid over which he has chanted mantras, this forming a fence which the disembodied spirit cannot surmount. Still chanting mantras, he digs up the body, cuts off some of its hair and places ud, (incense) in its mouth. After a time, the corpse becomes alive when it is made to promise to obey the orders of the magician in future. The head is severed from the body with a single stroke of a sword or knife and the hair and incense are taken to the magician's house; if he burns a little of them at any time, the spirit appears and executes all his command.

Treasure and Payalu.—By one branch of the black art called kusli, a witch can cause any quantity of grain or money to be transported to her own house. When she combs hair, a spirit is said to appear and obey her orders. A payalu, boy born with feet foremost, especially if he is eldest son of his mother, has also magical powers; this belief is most widely held. He is constantly watched and pursued by evil spirits, to circumvent whom, a little bibba, (marking-nut), is kept applied to his body. When he reaches the age of puberty, he has the faculty of seeing where treasure is buried. The chief method seems to be for him to look at some anjan, lamp black, placed in his hand, by a jadugar; by another device, the jadugar sacrifices the payalu, to the earth-god (a snake) and applies some of the fat to his own eyes; the service-roll of a retired police inspector showed that a youth was killed in 1891 with the object of discovering hidden treasure. Such treasure, dhan, is the subject of many other beliefs, almost every village having, perhaps, its own story. In fact, money is constantly being buried in small quantities. It is a well known practice to make the image of a snake or demon out of wheat flour and set it to protect the money; but buried treasure is said sometimes, supernaturally, to become invisible even to the owner. Some people in Akola district are said to know of wealth buried in their houses but to be afraid to dig it up, because of the spirit that guards it. Sometimes on the other hand, the wealth calls to a passer by to come; if he listens, it will probably bargain, promising to come to him if he will give it his own son or some other prized object. Should he agree, the son is to be placed on a certain night in the doorway of his house when suddenly the floor will be covered with gold, but the son will fall dead. A story is told of a cunning man who made the bargain, but set up instead of his son, a figure made of wheal flour; a shower of gold fell in the room and the figure toppled over the ground, but the spirit immediately discovered the fraud and the gold turned to coal. The image of Maruti in a deserted village is said often to have treasure hidden under it; people go at the proper time and with suitable sacrifices to search, but success is difficult of attainment. People tell of the wrong man trying to take a treasure and finding that he had thrust his hand into a nest of snakes and scorpions.

Animals.—Animals are the subject of numerous ideas. To see crows mating causes one to die within six months, but the penalty is escaped if the relatives think one dead and mourn accordingly; so a false report of death may be sent by post or companions may hurry at once to the village and concealing the facts say that the man or woman in question has just been bitten by a snake. It is a sign of calamity for an owl to cry at night over a house; one should avoid shouting a name at night lest the owls hear and repeat it. A clod of earth or even a stone thrown at an owl is carried by it to a stream and left there to dissolve, the life of the thrower wasting as the clod shrinks. The feather of an owl or the quill of a porcupine, if put in a house, especially under the bed, will cause husband and wife to quarrel. A magical drum can be made from the skin of the hudhud, hoopoe; if it is beaten at a feast, all the other drums will burst. If a child's teeth do not come out quickly, the tusk of a wild boar may be dipped in water and rubbed on a stone and then applied to the gum. The fat of a boar or a tiger is applied to the legs of a child who does not learn to walk quickly (or the mechanical support of a pangul-gada, cradle-cart, might be given). A cat is so holy that if it entered and even died in a temple, a Brahman praying there would not be defiled, but might himself put it outside. Tremendous though rather vague penalties are imposed on any one who kills a cat. He is required to make one of gold and if possible throw it into the sea; else he might take it to Manjirath. If a dog which knows no better, kills a cat, it need not be punished.

Miscellaneous.—Various love charms are practised, some by no means cleanly. The mohani is a complicated affair in which one must first obtain the ashes of a sacrifice by a special ceremony, and then sit naked in cold water at the Dhobi's stone, all the time reciting mantras and exposed to the most dangerous spirits. One either puts the magical product on one's eyes or throws it towards the person to be influenced, upon which he or she will immediately fall hopelessly in love. If cobras are mating and a cloth is thrown over them it becomes a potent charm for love and fertility. Love mixtures are so readily given with betel leaves that men are advised never to accept these from a woman. When a lamp is brought in at dusk-for this should not be left till night has completely fallen-people often salute first the light and then each other and perhaps utter a laudatory formula; a common explanation is that men once longed to see God and he appeared in the form of light, agni devata, deepaka. People also salute the Sun in the morning and on seeing the new moon salute both it and each other. At that time, they also tear their old clothes and offer a piece to the moon in the hope of getting new. Rags are with the same object sometimes tied to particular trees or to a branch set up on a mound, in the name of Chindhya Devi. It is said that father and son, two brothers, three Brahmans or nine women should never go on business together; thus they would be advised to go separately to a marriage. Husband and wife may ride in the same cart but should never try to cross a river in the same boat.

Finally, two little stories may be related; they come from the Hyderabad direction but seem quite in sympathy with the thought of the district. A certain young man used to keep watch at night in a field and every evening a strange woman came to spend the night with him. His elder brother's wife saw that his health was failing and managed to discover his secret. She warned him that she was no ordinary mortal and instructed him in a stratagem. Accordingly, he omitted one evening to go to the field. Next night when the stranger reproached him, he falsely declared that she or some one exactly like her had come to him in the village. The woman believed him and pointed out a certain tree, saying that if last night's visitor came again he should hold up a twig of that tree. The next night she herself came but he pretended to think that she was her imaginary double. brandished the twig, and was for ever delivered from her power. Again small-pox broke out in a village and a man put his children in a bag and tried to carry them away secretly. He stopped at a distance and released them but his wife saw that another woman who asked her to come and look for lice in her head- The wife did so, but discovered that the stranger's head was covered with eyes. The stranger said, "You thought I had only two eyes and could only see what was before me, but now you see that my sight is unlimited and you cannot by any attempt at secrecy escape me". They begged her forgiveness and returned to their village, for she was the goddess of small-pox herself.

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