1870.] The Vastu Yaga. 219 



as the giver of milk from which ghi is made, is respected and tended 

 with care, not because she is the true goddess Bhagavati (goddess 

 of prosperity), but because she confers so many benefits on the 

 Hindus. In the month of Vaisakha, the hottest month in the 

 year, the cow is worshipped every morning, if we may so call the 

 practice of careful tending. The matron of the house fans the 

 cow, anoints her hoofs and horns with oil and turmeric, gives her 

 tender heads of grass and fruits and vegetables. With a napkin 

 her hoofs are cleaned. Some have gone so far as to raise the dust 

 of the hoof to their own heads. 



If figures of Nagas occur in sculptured stones, they are sometimes 

 mere ornaments, serving the purpose of a twisted cord, a cornice, or 

 a frieze, or forming when hooded the best fanciful supports of thick 

 architraves or bases of pillars, more beautiful perhaps than horses, 

 lions, and elephants, subjects equally common, but of more difficult 

 execution. In nature, what can be deserving of greater admiration 

 than the graceful undulations, curves, and attitudes of a hooded 

 snake standing erect when enraged. If serpents at one or two 

 places appear as receivers of homage and respect, they are then in- 

 variably represented with human faces, and as such, they are no- 

 thing but allegorical representations of the aborigines, whose nether 

 parts were coils of snakes — 



" The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, 



But ended foul in many a scaly fold 



Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd with mortal sting." 



Or they are mere fanciful figures, as the dragons, &c, of medie- 

 val Christianity. Their occurrence in architectural ornamentation 

 does not lead us to a belief that they were ever objects worshipped ; 

 they are what Caryatides were to Greek architecture. 



Crocodiles, frogs, monkeys, parrots, and various other birds and 

 animals occur in the architectural remains of India, and with the 

 ludicrous scenes describing the pranks of these animals and birds 

 occur several scenes in which these are represented as adored. Ne- 

 vertheless no Hindu ever worships a crocodile or a frog. The 

 hanuman, a monkey with black face and hands, is an object 

 of worship in the North- Western Provinces; but this monkey 

 represents the Maliavira (the great hero), the allegorical personifi- 



