o 



6 Journal of 



[N.S., XIII, 



heap, because that side is the amun or hand which contains the 

 refuse of the corn (set apart for the chamars or leather-curers of 

 the village), which having fallen behind the winnower is of a 



very inferior quality. 



The whole ceremony of Chank is performed with the profound- 

 est silence, which taboo against speaking is strictly observed till 

 the cleaned grain is measured and distributed. The reason 

 popularly ascribed for the observance of this taboo is that, if 

 any talking is done while the ceremony is being performed, the 

 malignant spirits, who " bootless make the breathless housewife 

 churn," injure the grains. 1 



We have already seen that the heap of winnowed grains in 

 Karnal, and the stack of harvested crops in the Upper Doab 

 and Delhi Division are circumambulated by the performer of 

 the Chank ceremonv thrice. While in the Rohilkhaud Division, 

 the circuit is made twice only. We have also seen that the 

 initial circuit is always commenced from the east or south on 

 to the west and north, and then to the east or south again. 

 It will be noticed that this movement is in imitation of the 

 sun's apparent diurnal course from east to west. This rite of 

 sunwise circumambulation is a vestige of sun-worship, and is 

 had recourse to because, by his genial warmth, the sun exercises 

 a beneficial influence on the vegetable products of the earth. 

 Numerous vestiges of this sun-worship exist in the customs of 

 the European peasantry. The Irish peasant crawls thrice 

 round the healing spring in imitation of the sun's apparent 

 diurnal course.* 2 Similarly, when a Highlander goes to bathe in, 

 or to drink water out of, a holy spring, he always approaches 

 it by going round the place from the east to the south and 

 thence to the west. This is called in Gaelic going round the 

 right, or the lucky way. 8 In the Highlands of Scotland also,, 

 the custom of "making the deazil" or of walking sunwise 

 thrice round a person to whom the performer wishes well, 

 exists even at the present day. Even in the farthest Hebrides, 

 animals are led round an invalid following the sun's course. 4 

 Many such traces also survive in Indian ritual and custom. 

 The bride and bridegroom walk round the sacred fire or the 

 central pole of the marriage-shed in imitation of the sun course. 

 A Hindu worshipper circumambulates a temple or shrine in the 

 same way. Sunwise also move the oxen round the threshing- 



pole as they tread out the grain on the threshing-ground. 



1 Op. cit., pp. 132-133. 



2 Cox's An Introduction to Folklore (Edition 1897), p. 20. 



* Elliot's Supplement io the Glossary of Indian Terms (Agra Edition of 

 1845), p. 131 (footnote). v * 



* From the Hebrides to the Himalayas. By Miss C. F. Gordon-Cum- 

 inmg. 2 vols. London: 187G. Vol. II., p. 164. Also W. Henderson 

 Folklore of the Northern Counties. London: Published by the Folklore 



Society. INTO. p. 81. J 



