36 HOPKINS— MAGIC OBSERVANCES IN HINDU EPIC. [April 21, 



Nahusa himself says of his power: "Whatever hving creature 

 I look at with my eye, his energy I quickly take away; that is the 

 power of my sight," drster halam mama, 3. 181. 35. There is no 

 implication that he wishes to do ill. The queen's eye made a sore 

 on her nephew's finger ; but with her look she might have consumed 



him, 9-63-65; ii-i5-30- 



The expression used in 3. 15 1.6, " fruitful has my eye become," 

 that is my sight has been blessed (through seeing thee), mama 'pi 

 saphalam caksnh, is due rather to picturesque language than to any 

 peculiar view of the eye. 



Minor Magical Traits. 



The reverence accorded to the catiispatJias or places where two 

 roads meet, making " four paths," is probably due to the belief that 

 evil spirits haunt such places, 6.192.58. To enter a place " Not by 

 the door" is consonant only with evil designs, 2.21.53; 10.8.10. 



Another relic of superstition due to magic is the aversion to 

 leaping over another person. The feeling is so strong with savages 

 that in some parts of the world houses are not built with two 

 stories because of the avowed objection to the presence of another 

 human person above the lower inmate of the dwelling. But in the 

 epic the idea of the world-soul has blotted out this older view and 

 the reason given for not leaping over another is explained by this 

 later belief. Thus Bhima refuses to vault over his brother Hanumat, 

 saying: "If I did not know that Being who has been manifested 

 in all beings through tradition, agama, I should vault thee, as 

 Hanumat did the sea; but as it is, I will not insult the Supreme 

 Being (in thee) and will not leap over thee," 3.i47.8f. 



Conception by sniffing or inhaling sacred fumes, of sacrifice, 

 etc., is sometimes varied by smelling or tasting a brew prepared 

 with Mantras (holy formulas), and sometimes combined with tree- 

 marriages (q. v.). But a more purely magical touch is furnished 

 by the ceremony alluded to in 4.3.12: "I know the bulls having 

 good signs, by smelling the urine of which even a barren woman 

 conceives." Water alone may be doctored by a priest so as to 

 have the same efifect, 3.126.20. A god revives the dead with a 



