I9I0.] HOPKINS— MAGIC OBSERVANCES IN HINDU EPIC. 33 



To be bald is to be disgraced anyway, and only hermits (parivrajanti 

 dandrtham munddli kdsayvasasah, 12.18.32) and barbarians shave 

 their heads. The hermit is viunda or vikaca, " shaved on the head," 

 3.260.12 (of a Sivaite ascetic), and the poet, in describing the heads 

 of the barbarians on the battle field, says that they had " beards but 

 no hair on their heads," which made them look like cocoanuts. 

 Probably ethnic characteristics lie back of the " tufted hair " of 

 Buddha and the standing epithets applied to Krsna and to his chief 

 disciple, Arjuna, who are called, respectively, Hrsikesa and Guda- 

 kesa, c. g., at the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita 6.25.24. The 

 obvious etymology would make the first " stiff-haired " and the 

 second "ball-haired" (cf. hrsita, of hair standing on end; but 

 native piety divides the word into hrsika-isa, "lord of senses"). 

 Hair with curly ends is praised. Krsna, the heroine of the great 

 epic, has blue-black hair with its own perfume and glow like that 

 of a snake, " with twisted (curly) ends," vrjinagni, 5.82.33. ^"^ 



The squaws of some of our American Indians were accustomed 

 to make a hair-parting through the middle of the crown and daub 

 it with red paint, presumably to keep evil spirits out, as they used 

 red paint for that purpose very generally. The same practice 

 obtained in epic times (as it does today) among the ladies of India, 

 though, like the squaws, they regarded it as merely ornamental 

 to decorate themselves thus.^^ 



The casting of hair into the fire exhibits all the trait of a 

 magical ceremony. In 3.136.91., Raibhya, a saint, cast into the 

 fire two locks of his hair, and out of the fire came a woman and 

 a male ogre, " with horrible eyes and terrible to see." This male 

 ogre then pursued the enemy of the saint; who could not escape 



'"The signs of excellence in horses include (at 3. 71. 14) ten twists or 

 curls called avartas, which show good qualities. Compare Caland, Over het 

 Bijgeloof dcr Haarvcrvcls op het paard. In man, tilbaraka (hornless) 

 " beardless " is equivalent to eunuch. " Bhima would kill anyone who should 

 say to him ' O thou tilbaraka '," 8.69.73. " Curly red hair " characterizes the 

 foreign van-guard of a model army, 12.101.16. 



" Catlin says that no one knows why the Indians so decorate them- 

 selves, and he himself cannot think of any reason. 



The middle parting was customary : sttsamyatas ca 'pi jata vibhatkd, 

 dvaidhlkrta blulti lalatadcse, SI. 3.1 13.9 (visakta. . natisama Mate, B.112.9). 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. , XLIX, I94 C, PRINTED JUNE II, I9IO. 



