1917.] North Indian Agricultural Ceremonies. 31 



done, the evil spirits would carry off the grain in these basket 

 standing on their bottoms]. The winnowed grain? are usually 

 measured in the evening. [This is one of the auspicious times, 

 among the peasantry of the Eastern Panjab, for commencing 

 the measurement of the cleaned grain. Vide my remarks infra]. 

 The measurement is made with profound silence. The measure 

 sits with his back turned towards the unlucky quarter of the 

 sky and keeps an account of the number of basketfuls measured 

 by tying knots. [An instance of the primitive method of com- 

 putation — similar to the Santali method of using knotted cords 

 as calendars]. 1 It is popularly believed by the peasantry of 

 these parts that the malignant sprites cannot purloin the grain- 

 after they have been measured. 2 [Tn Kamal, however, it i- 

 believed that, as soon as the winnowed grains have been mea- 

 sured, they become perfectly immune from the effects of the 

 evil eye. Vide my remarks infra}. 



Next we have to discuss the taboo against speaking as it is 

 observed in connection with the ceremonies for heaping up the 

 grain after it has been cleaned by winnowing. In the eastern 

 districts of the Panjab, especially in Karnal. the winnowed 

 grain is gathered into a heap with a good deal of precaution, 

 for otherwise it is apprehended that the malignant sprites will 

 rob the same. One man sits with his face towards the north 

 and, sticking a ploughshare into the earth, places two round 

 balls of cowdung on the ground on either side of it. [Note 

 that cowdung is a spirit-scarer]. This plough-coulter is said to 

 symbolize Shaod Mata or the " goddess of fertility.' Then a 

 branch of the akh or gigantic swallow-wort [Sanskrit, arka ; 

 Bengali, akanda, ; and Hindi, madar (Calotropis gigantea) — a 

 sacred plant, as in the Lower Himalayas, a person, desiring to 

 marry a third time, has to marry it before he can be united in 

 wedlock with his third human wife] and some shoots of the dub 

 grass [another spirit-scarer] are offered to it. Then the cele- 

 brants salute the symbol of the goddess with the utterance of 

 the following prayer: " O Mother Shaod! Give the increase 

 and make our rulers and bankers contented." The man seated 

 on the ground then hides the symbol from the gaze of all on- 

 lookers and, at the same time, covers it up with the grain 

 which other persons present there throw over his head from 

 behind his back. [This is very similar to the rites described 

 supra as performed in some parts of the Benares and Delhi 

 Divisions during the preliminary stages of the threshing opera- 

 tion]. When it has been covered up completely, the other 

 celebrants heap the cleaned grain upon it. While they are 



1 Vide my Further Notes on the Primitive Method of Computing Time 

 and Distance in the Journ. Anthrop. Soc. of Bombay, Vol. IX., pp. 80 87. 



* Settlement Report of Hoshangabad. By Sir C. A. Elliott. Allaha- 

 bad : 1867. pp. 78 ff. 



