1917.] North Indian Agricultural Ceremonies. 29 



^ This ceremony, however, is performed with some slight 

 variations in the Rohilkhand Division. After a horn or reli- 

 gious ceremony has been performed by lighting a sacrificial fire, 

 a ploughshare and a pot full of water are placed to the north 

 of the threshing-pole round which the oxen are driven to tread 

 out the grain. The threshed-out grain is then heaped up to the 

 south of the ploughshare stuck into the ground, and not over it 

 as is done in the Delhi Division. 1 [Compare this lighting of 

 sacred fire with the offering of fire which is made, in the dis- 

 trict of Bareilly, to the heap of winnowed grain] • 



We shall now discuss the several component elements of 

 the aforementioned ceremonies, namely, (a) the sticking of the 

 ploughshare into the ground ; (&) the' act of covering up the 

 ploughshare with the corn without its being seen by a stranger ; 



water. 



o 



corn 



{a) The virtue of " cauld iron " as a spirit-scarer is well- 

 known. The ploughshare is stuck into the ground for the pur- 

 pose of scaring away the evil spirits which may come and take 

 away from the grains their substance and nutritive qualities. 

 This is paralleled by the English housemaid's practice of placing 

 the poker across the bars and pointing up the chironev in order 

 to make the fire burn. Then, again, whenever there is difficulty 

 in butter-making, which is believed to be due to thwarting by 

 the mischievous sprites "that bootless make the breathless 

 housewife churn, 5 ' the English housewife plunges a red-hot 

 poker into the milk. 3 The belief about the evil spirits stealing 



is widespread. In the folklore of the English peasantry^ 

 flying dragons, dwarfs, fairies and witches purloin the corn from 

 the fields and convey it through the air to other people. Simi- 

 larly, a demon or wizard armed with sickles on his feet is be- 

 lieved to visit the fields of ripening corn, cut down the crops 

 and appropriate the same. 4 In a Danish folktale, the elves are 

 described as clipping off the ears of rye from a rye-field. 6 



(b) The act of covering up the ploughshare with corn is 

 done secretly in order to avert the evil eye of strangers or of 

 " eye-biters " as an Irishman would saj T . 



(c) The fire is also a spirit-scarer and lighted to drive off 

 mischievous sprites who may be loitering about to cast harmful 

 spells on the harvested crops. This is similar to the English 



1 Op. cit., p. 20. 



2 Bareilly Settlement Report. By S. M. Moens, Allahabad : 1874. 

 p. 78. 



3 An Introduction to Folklore. By M. R. Cox. London : David 

 Xutfc. 1897. pp. 7-8. 



* The Handbook of Folklore. By G. L. Gomme. London: David 

 Muft. 1890. p. 107. 



* Hartland's The Science of Fairy Tales (Edition of 1891), p. 67. 



