FEELING AGAINST COW-KILLING.

Of the unhappy agitation against cow-killing, which has been in recent years such a serious problem to the British Government in Northern India, nothing further can be said here. To the orthodox Hindu, killing a cow, even accidentally, is a serious matter, and involves the feeding of Brâhmans and the performance of pilgrimages. In the Hills a special ritual is prescribed in the event of a plough ox being killed by accident.' The idea that misfortune follows the killing of a cow is common. It used to be said that storms arose on the Pîr Panjâl Pass in Kashmîr if a cow was killed."

General Sleeman gives a case at Sâgar, where an epidemic was attributed to the practice of cattle slaughter, and a popular movement arose for its suppression.3 Sindhia offered Sir John Malcolm in 1802 an additional cession of territory if he would introduce an article into the Treaty with the British Government prohibiting the slaughter of cows within the territory he had been already compelled to abandon. The Emperor Akbar ordered that cattle should not be killed during the Pachûsar, or twelve sacred days observed by the Jainas; Sir John Malcolm gives a copy of the original Firmân. Cow-killing is to this day prohibited in orthodox Hindu States, like Nepâl.

BULL-WORSHIP AMONG BANJÂRAS.

There is a good example of bull-worship among the wandering tribe of Banjâras. "When sickness occurs, they lead the sick man to the foot of the bullock called Hatâdiya; for though they say that they pay reverence to images, and that their religion is that of the Sikhs, the object of their worship is this Hatâdiya, a bullock devoted to the god Bâlajî. On this animal no burden is ever laid,

1 Atkinson, "Himalayan Gazetteer," ii. 913.

2 Jarrett, "Aîn-i-Akbari," ii. 348, quoting Erskine ; "Babar," Introduction, 47.

3" Rambles," i. 199 sqq.

4" Central India,” i. 329, note; ii. 164.

but he is decorated with streamers of red-dyed silk and tinkling bells, with many brass chains and rings on neck and feet, and strings of cowry shells and silken tassels hanging in all directions. He moves steadily at the head of the convoy, and the place he lies down on when tired, that they make their halting-place for the day. At his feet they make their vows when difficulties overtake them, and in illness, whether of themselves or cattle, they trust to his worship for a cure." The respect paid by Banjâras to cattle seems, however, to be diminishing. Once upon a time they would never sell cattle to a butcher, but nowadays it is an every-day occurrence.'

SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT CATTLE.

Infinite are the superstitions about cattle, their marks, and every kind of peculiarity connected with them, and this has been embodied in a great mass of rural rhymes and proverbs which are always on the lips of the people. Thus, for instance, it is unlucky for a cow to calve in the month of Bhâdon. The remedy is to swim it in a stream, sell it to a Muhammadan, or in the last resort give it away to a Gujarâti Brâhman. Here may be noticed the curious prejudice against the use of a cow's milk, which prevails among some tribes such as the Hos and some of the aboriginal tribes of Bengal. The latter use a species of wild cattle, the Mithun, for milking purposes, but will not touch the milk of the ordinary cow.2

THE BUFFALO.

The respect paid to the cow does not fully extend to the buffalo. The buffalo is the vehicle of Yama, the god of death. The female buffalo is in Western India regarded as the incarnation of Savitrî, wife of Brahma, the Creator.

1 Balfour, "Journal Asiatic Society Bengal,” xiii. N.S.; Gunthorpe, "Notes on Criminal Tribes of Berâr," 36.

2 Ball, "Jungle Life," 165; "North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 60; "Calcutta Review," lxxx. 53, 58.

Durgâ or Bhavânî killed the buffalo-shaped Asura Mahisa, Mahisâsura, after whom Maisûr is called. According to the legend as told in the Mârkandeya Purâna, Ditî, having lost all her sons, the Asuras, in the fight with the gods, turned herself into a buffalo in order to annihilate them. She underwent such terrible austerities to propitiate Brahma, that the whole world was shaken and the saint Suparsva disturbed at his devotions. He cursed Ditî that her son should be in the shape of a buffalo, but Brahma so far mitigated the curse that only his head was to be that of a buffalo. This was Mahisâsura, who ill-treated the gods, until they appealed to Vishnu and Siva, who jointly produced a lovely representation of a Bhavânî, the Mahisâsurmardanî, who slew the monster. This Mahisâsura is supposed to be the origin of the godling Mahasoba, worshipped in Western India in the form of a rude stone covered with red lead.

Another of these buffalo demons is Dundubhi, "he that roars like the sound of the kettle-drum," who in the Râmâyana bursts with his horns the cavern of Bali, son of Indra and king of monkeys. Bali seized him by the horns and dashed him to pieces. The comparative mythologists regard him as one of the forms of the cloud monster the sun.1

Sadasiva, one of the forms of Mahâdeva, took the form of a buffalo to escape the Pândavas, and sank into the ground at Kedârnâth. The upper portion of his body is said to have come to the surface at Mukhâr Bind in Nepâl, where he is worshipped as Pasupatinâtha. When the Pândavas were freed from their guilt, they in their gratitude built five temples in honour of the hinder parts of the deity, which are now known as the Pânch KedârKedarnath, Madhya Maheswar, Rudranâth, Tungunâth, and Kalpeswar.

The buffalo is constantly sacrificed at shrines in honour of Durga Devî. The Toda worship of the buffalo is familiar to all students of Indian ethnology.

1 Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," i. 75.

THE ANTELope.

The black buck was in all probability the tribal totem of some of the races occupying the country anciently known as Aryâvarta. Mr. Campbell accounts for the respect paid to the animal by the use of hartshorn as a remedy for faintness, swoons, and nervous disorders.' But this hardly explains the respect paid to it, and the use of its dung by the Bengal Parhaiyas instead of cowdung to smear their floors looks as if it were based on totemism. This too is shown by the regard paid its skin. As Mr. Frazer has proved, it is a custom among many savage tribes to retain the skin as an image of the deity which the animal represented.3 Hence according to the old ritual, the skin of the antelope was the prescribed dress of the student of theology, and it is still the seat of the ascetic."

2

The antelope constantly appears in the folk-tales as a sort of Deus ex machina, which leads the hero astray in the chase and brings him to the home of the ogress or the ensorcelled maiden." In the Mahâbhârata, the King Parikshit is led astray by a gazelle, and King Pandu dies when he meets his wife Madrî, because he had once killed under similar circumstances a gazelle with his mate. In the Vishnu Purâna, Bharata loses the fruits of his austerities by becoming enamoured of a fawn. These fairy hinds appear throughout the whole range of folk-lore. A Nepâlese legend tells how the three gods Vishnu, Siva, and Brahma once appeared in the form of deer, whence the place where they were seen is known as Mrigasthali."

THE ELEPHANT.

The elephant naturally claims worship as the type of strength and wisdom. To the rustic he impersonates

1 "Notes," 287.

2 Dalton, "Descriptive Ethnology," 131. 4 Manu, "Institutes," ii. 41. "Arabian Nights," ii. 508; Tawney, "Katha Sarit Sâgara,"

3 "Golden Bough," ii. 93.

5 Burton,

i. 166; Clouston, "Popular Tales,” i.; "Gesta Romanorum,” Tale xviii. 6 Wright, "History,"

"81.