





314 On the Huli in Malwa. [No. 99. 



as they walk round, throw rice, &c. into the flame, and dip into it, so as to 

 scorch the jao, (11) their castor plants, mutter prayers and vows, and 

 offer up numuskar with joined hands. This " Purduksheva" over, the 

 bugulgir (or embrace) succeeds. Friends embrace each other (12) as 

 if they had long been separated; (13) many exchange their reserved 

 malas or castor trees in token of regard ; the chela touches his mas- 

 ter's feet ; the son those of his father ; and the " labratum" on this oc- 

 casion is not unfrequently extended by the young to any respected 

 senior. 



The scene now becomes very lively. Each kisan (cultivator) hastens 

 to secure from the fire a half-burnt stake, which he sets up in the 

 centre of his most productive field, where under the name of Huli ka 

 Raja, it acts in a triple capacity, attracting good crops, averting evil 

 eyes, and serving like its classical parallel, the " ruber hortorum 

 custos," to frighten away birds. (14) Parties may also be observed scam- 

 pering away in every direction with lighted bullas snatched from the 

 flames, to replace the culinary fire at home, which has been religiously 

 extinguished, according to a superstition general all over India, and 

 which many of the poorer Mussulmen have adopted. (15) Great pains 

 are taken in a few families to keep this fire alive during the year ; its 

 accidental extinction is regarded as the sure precursor of some great 

 misfortune, and there seems to be, or rather to have been, (for the custom 



rating the search for Osiris ; and the Jews still seven times circle their altar at the feast 

 of tabernacles. Boulanger and many others, devote whole pages to the mystic No. 7 — 

 See Moore's Pantheon, 300. Burder on Exodus xx ; 10, &c. &c. 



11. The ear of barley is taken home and carefully preserved, being considered 

 of much efficacy in the cure of various diseases. The castor plant they throw away. 



12. This custom has probably lasted longer, and been more generally diffused, 

 than any other of these ancient rites. Marco Polo mentions it as a principal ceremony 

 of the white feast of the Tartars. In Persia, at the Nou Roz, there is no end of kissing ; 

 and our own new year's compliments will not be forgotten. 



13. This custom is in some sort repeated at the Dewali, and Beeja Dusmi. The 

 ingenious theorist Boulanger would have been glad to seize on it in support of his favour- 

 ite arguments — See Ant. dev., 1, 233. 



14. See Tod's Rajasthan, 2; 662. 



15. In the north of England a remnant of the Yule clog is put by to light the next 

 Christmas fire with, and the place where it is kept is considered safe from demons- 

 In some places the new year's gift which the king sends to his vassals is fire, which 

 being brought, all the old fire is put out ; and this new fire all the neighbouring people 

 are obliged to fetch every one for himself, upon pain of incurring the guilt and pun- 

 ishment of high treason — (Montaigne's Essay on Customs and Laws.) At the Chinese fes- 

 tival of the new year, every one carries a lighted candle or two to the temple. These 

 superstitions relating to fire are very ancient, and date doubtless from those times when 

 religious rites, as inculcated in the Vedas, consisted chiefly of Homas. 



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