1917.] North Indian Agricultural Ceremonies. \ I 



single word, the violation of which taboos would bring destruc- 

 tion on her. In another folktale from Pomerania, an enchanted 

 princess can be disenchanted only if her deliverer would carry 

 her to the churchyard of Wusseken and place her down there 

 in profound silence and without looking round in the meant inn. 

 Similar incidents also occur in a mdrchen from Eastern 



Pomerania. 1 



Now arises the question : Why is profound silence observed . 

 during the performance of the aforementioned agricultural 

 operations ? The popular explanation appears to be that, if 

 any talking is done or even if an ejaculation of any kind what- 

 ever is uttered, evil spirits would come and deprive the corn of 

 its substance and nutritive properties. Is this explanation plau- 

 sible ? I think not. I, therefore, venture to propound below 

 a theory which seems to me to explain, with at least some 

 show of plausibility, the reason why the taboo against speaking 

 is observed while the aforementioned agricultural operations 

 are in full swing. Now Mr. E. S. Hartland has collected a 

 large mass of evidence from which he has shown that super- 

 natural beings, without any distinction whatever, dislike not 

 only being recognized and spoken to, but also being seen, or 

 at any rate being watched, and are only willing to manifest 

 themselves to human beings at their own sweet will and 

 pleasure and for their own purposes.* Now the Earth-deity or 

 the Earth-Mother is one of these supernatural beings. 



I have already shown that when primitive man first attemp- 

 ted to produce food by cultivating the soil, he keenly observed 

 all that helped or hindered him. While he and his women-folk 

 recognised the sun-spirit and rain-spirit as beneficent agents 

 striving to help them, the Earth, great and kindly, in whose 

 very self the seed was embedded, stood forth conspicuously 

 above all, as the one agent which helped them greatly. They, 

 therefore, came to look upon the Earth as the sole agent who, 

 with or without the aid of the sky- or heaven-spirit, supplied 

 their wants. The next step was that they came to look upon 

 the Earth in the light of a spirit or goddess. The Earth, there- 

 fore, in the capacity of the Giver of Sustenance, has come to 

 be reverenced and worshipped among many primitive races of 

 people all over the world, as is evidenced by the numerous rites 

 and ceremonies performed by them for ensuring a bountiful 

 yield of crops, fertility in woman herself and in cattle. 8 



While the operations of sowing the seeds, heaping up the 

 harvested crops, threshing out and winnowing the same, and 



- The Science of Fairu Tales. By E. S. Hartland. F.S.A., London : 

 Walter Scott. 1891. pp. 236*7 : 242. 



2 Op. cit. , p. 69. 



3 Vide my article The Worship of the Earth-Mother in The Hindustan 



Review for July 1910, p. 47. 



