182 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1905, 
take the plough around the field and sow in a circular form in 
several rows. This may be for the purpose of covering the ground 
which had not been sown; but it is interesting to note that the 
farmers call this final sowing bihana, to wed or marry. Going 
around the field in a circle may be associated with the circumven- 
tion of the marriage pcle. 
44, The Milk Woman on the Piough.—In sowing the cold- 
weather crops, the plough invariably has a mass of damp earth 
placed on it at the point where the handle of the plough meets the 
tongue. This is said to assist the plough to go deep down into 
the soil. But why should it be called the “ milk woman ”’—the 
Rautain? The farmers are always greatly amused when I ask 
them why they call the lump of earth the Rautain; the term is so 
familiar to them that they have never asked themselves the ques- 
tion as to where the connection comes in with the “‘ milk woman.” 
45. A Possible Haplanation of the Preceding.—Since writing 
the two preceding notes I have been reading Hiawatha. In the 
section entitled ‘“‘ Blessing the Cornfields,”’ I find the following 
lines. These lines are given without note or comment and the 
reader must judge for himself as to whether there is any connection! 
between the practice they refer to and the practices described in 
notes 43 and 44. 
‘Once when all the maize was planted, 
‘“‘ Hiawatha wise and thoughtful, 
‘“‘ Spake and said to Minnehaha, 
“To his wife the Laughing Water. 
“‘' You shall bless to-night the cornfields, 
“ Draw a magic circle round them. 
“To protect them from destruction 
“ Blast of mildew, blight of insect. 
“Tn the night when all is silence, 
“Tn the night, when all is darkness, 
‘Rise up from your bed in silence 
‘““ Lay aside your garments wholly 
‘“‘ Walk around the fields you planted 
‘“‘Round the borders of the cornfields 
‘“‘ Covered by your tresses only. 
‘““Robed with darkness as a garment 
‘““ From her bed rose Laughing Water. 
‘“‘ Laid aside her garments wholly, 
“And with darkness clothed and guarded 
“ Unashamed and unaffrighted, ' 
‘Drew the sacred magic circle, 
“Of her footprints round the cornfields.” 
In these lines, then, we find definite reference to a nude 
woman going around the borders of the cornfields for the purpose 
of protecting them from injury. In my notes Nos. 43 and 44, it 
is stated that a plough with a lump of earth called “ the milk 
woman” is taken around the fields several times after they are 
1 [See Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2nd ed., vol. 1I, chap, I1I,—Ed.] 
