Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 103

APRIL, 1897.]
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
W&S so valued that he had to keep his mouth full of water.14 In North Africa, the priest of the Mandingoes spits thrice in the face of a child when he names it.18 On new-moon days, in Africa, people say prayers, spit on their hands, and rub their hands on their face. 16 A Zulu woman, attacked by her husband's spirit, keeps the spittle that gathers in her mouth while she dreams, and the exorcist buries it in a hole.17 Abyssinian Christians think it a sin to spit on the day they take the Sacrament.18
In America, a traveller rubs his legs with grass, spits on the grass, and lays it on a cross-road shrine and drives off the demon of tiredness.19 The Peruvians spat on the ground as a sign of contempt and abhorrence,20 Frobisher (A. D. 1577) tells of a Greenland woman who, when her child was wounded by an arrow, took off the English doctor's salves and licking the wound with her own tongue, not much unlike an English dog, healed the child's arm.21
Among the classic Greeks, women when alarmed spat into their bosoms.22 The girl in Theocritus' Idyll, xx. (B. C. 200), spat thrice on her robe to scare an unwelcome lover. Lucian (A. D. 150) mentions spitting thrice in the face as part of an incantation. 29 According to Atheneus (A, D. 200) doves spit into the mouths of their young to guard them against fascination. At the sight of an epileptic or of a randman the ancient Greeks spat thrice into their bosom.25 Galen (A. D. 100) held that epilepsy and contagion were scared by spitting. To spit on the hand added strength to a blow. Fasting spittle cured boils. Galen advised spitting on meeting a lame man on the right; spitting into the bosom in framning a wish : spitting thrice in saying a prayer and in taking medicine.36 The Romans spat into the folds of their dress to keep off the Evil Eye.27 Both Tibullus (B. C. 40) and Persius (A. D. 50) praise spittle as a guard against the Evil Eye,28 According to Pliny (A. D. 70) serpents cannot abide spittle more than scalding water : fasting spittle killed them." A woman's fasting spittle cured blood-shot eyes.30 Spitting on the person struck with the falling sickness prevented infection, and spitting in the eyes of a witch broke her power to enchant.31 If a stranger looks on a child asleep the nurse spits thrice.32 Boxers spit in their hands to make the blow heavy: to spit in meeting a lame man, or in passing a place where danger has been ran, prevents ill-luck.33 Fasting spittle cures warts, boils and inflamed eyes, skin, and wounds.34 Spittle rubbed behind the ear drives out gloomy fancies; rubbed on the brow it stops & fit of coughing.35 The Emperor Vespasian (A. D. 90) cured the blind by rubbing his eyes with spittle.36 At a Roman birth the nurse touched the infant's lips and forehead with spittle.37
Christ hcaled the eyes of the blind by anointing them with clay and spittle.58 The authority of this iniracle is given as the reason why the Roman practice of touching the new-born babe with spittle was continued in Baptism by the Christian Church.39 The Christian catechumen spat thrice at the devil. During the fourth century a Christian sect, called the Messaliaus, made spitting a religious exercise in hopes of spitting out the devils they inhaled. Of the
It From MS, Note, 5th April 1883.
16 Park's Travels, Vol. I. p. 269. 16 Brand'. Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 149. 11 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 147. 18 Moore's Oriental Fragments, p. 129.
19 Bancroft, Vol. IV. P. 481. 20 Descriptive Sociology, pp. 2, 83.
21 Barron's Polar Vovajes, p. 89. ?Clarke's Travels in Greece, Vol. IV. p. 7.
23 Dalyell's Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 73. # Story's Castle of St. Anjelo, p. 90; Elworthy'a The Evil Eye, p. 42 25 Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Vol. III. p. 1102 ; Potter's Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 401. 3. Galen, Lib. X., De Tac. Sim. Mal. Vol. II. p. 287. 97 Pliny's Natural History, Book xxvii. Chap. 7. * Elworthy's The Evil Eye, p. 417; Aubrey's Romains of Gentilis, p. 42. * Pliny's Natural History, Book vii, Chap. 2.
0 Op. cit. Book xxvii, Chap. 7. 51 Op. cit. Book xxyii, Chap. 4. 12 Op. cit. Book xvii. Chap. 4.
30 Op. cit. Book xxvii. Chap. 7. 34 Op. cit. Book xxvii. Chap. 7.
55 Op. cit. Book xxviii, Chapa, 2 and 6. B6 Elworthy's The Evil Eye, p. 490; Black's Folk. Medicine, pp. 183, 184. 37 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 439.
* St. Mark's Gorpel, vü. 34; viii. 28. » Golden Manual, p. 670.
• Op. cit. p. 428. 1 Lockie's History of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. I. p. 25; Student's Encyclopædia," Witoboraft."