42 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Benr/al. [N.S.. XIII . 1!)17.] 



measuring the cleaned grains are going on. the Earth-Mother, 

 who is believed to have helped the agriculturists in sowing and 

 growing their crops, is supposed to be present at the scenes 

 thereof. It is for her propitiation that the little nameless acts 

 of worship, which have been set forth above in detail, are per- 

 formed. Now there is evidence in European folklore to show 

 that the Earth -goddess or the Earth-Mother dislikes being seen 

 or spoken to. In the island of Riigen in the Baltic Sea, the 

 -oddess Hertha, who is identified by the Roman historian 

 Tacitus with the Mother Earth or the goddess of the soil, to 

 whose kindly offices the produce of the land would be attribu- 

 ted, in whose name and by whose permission would all agricul- 

 tural operations he performed, had her dwelling in the Hertha- 

 burg. Often on moon-lit nights she comes out attended by her 

 maids to bathe in the lake. Whoever looks upon her while 

 she is performing her ablutions, is drawn down to the lake and 

 engulfed in its depths. 1 \i would thus appeal- that, while the 

 agricultural operations go on. she is believed to be present at 

 the scenes thereof and. therefore, to object to her being seen 

 by any except the operators themselves. As she is a supei 

 natural being, she does not like that an vbodv should speak to 

 her or profane the scene of her hallowed presence bv breaking 

 the silence that reigns thereover. Consequently the agricul- 

 turist themselves, who take part in these operations, also 



observe profound silence. 



' Hartland's The Science of Fairy Tales (Edition 1891), pp. 7t 



89 



