1840.] On the Huli in Malwa. 313 



green thallus) a plant of Castor, (6) to the top of which an ear (bali) of 

 jao has been attached, and taking with him as many cow-dung neck- 

 laces (bulla ka mala) as there are males in his family, proceeds to the 

 Huli, round which the old and young of the village have collected. 

 The potail having arrived with some little state, and the noisy accom- 

 paniments of singing women, tom-toms, blowing of horns, &c, the 

 poojari squats near the pile, his implements of worship, grain, cocoa- 

 nuts, rachna, (mixed huldi and lime) before him, and the usual pooja 

 rite per acta ; either he, or the head man of the village sets fire (7) to 

 the Huli, upon which all the malas have been previously thrown, each 

 householder however reserving one, which he takes home again. (8) The 

 moment the pile begins to blaze, they look anxiously to which quarter 

 the flame is driven by the wind. The East is the fortunate point, the 

 West and North are also good, but the South is the sign of blight and 

 famine. Ills also follow, should there be no wind, so that the flame 

 should rise up straight. (9) 



The Huli is next perambulated seven times (10) by the assembly, who 



6. Most of these ancient rites, now diffused through foreign countries, have been 

 so distorted and diverted from their original intent, by the adoption of new creeds 

 and other causes, that the analogies can be sometimes but faintly traced. The practice 

 here mentioned of bearing boughs, may have a like origin with the similar one 

 of the ancient and modern Jews, at the feast of tabernacles ; the suspending branches 

 to their houses of the Chinese and Japanese, at the festival of the new year, and 

 the like superstitious ornamenting of our churches at Christmas. 



7. Some think that the Huli should be fired by a light newly struck from a steel, 

 or perhaps more correctly from two pieces of dry wood, the aram of antiquity ; but 

 this distinction is frequently neglected. In the Deccan the outcasts have a separate 

 Huli, from which a lighted log is brought by force, to serve as a match for the 

 grand pile. See for an interesting account of this, the Sooni paper, Bombay Transac- 

 tions, vol.3. 



8. This has probably some connexion with a superstition (not wholly unknown 

 on other occasions in India) which was common to the Greeks and Romans, with 

 whom it was usual to carry home part of an oblation for luck's sake. (Potter, 

 whom with Alexander ab Alexandro and Boulanger (Fantiquite devoilee par ses 

 usages,) I have principally consulted for the parallel rites of ancient Europe.) The 

 reserved mala is kept in the house during the year, and on the succeeding Huli is 

 taken and burnt with the rest, and a fresh one laid by in its place. 



9. The Greeks derived omens in a similar manner from the direction of the 

 flame of a sacrifice. See Potter's Antiquities: I, p. 371. 



10. Three times is the more correct number of perambulations according to the 

 Pudum Puran, and is certainly that which has been, in all times and nations, most 

 common, as in the "Deasil" still performed round Cairns on Sundays and holidays in 

 our own country. It is also the number most usually adopted in India on this occasion, 

 (Bombay Transactions, vol. 3. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, III, p. 602, 371. Pliny 

 28 : 2 ; Potter II : p. 253, &c.) but the use of the number seven seems to be quite asan- 

 cient. A cow was led seven times round the temples at the Eygptian festival commemo- 



