Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/105

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Miscellanea.
95

470. Heroine shut up in a box, which is swallowed by a fish.

472. Virtue versus Vice.—Talking birds; magical cures.

474. Monghyr.—At the edge of fields are platforms, called "the Thirty-four." On each two cones; by one, models of agricultural implements; by the other, things used by women at marriage. For health to the cattle, and a good harvest. A pretty tale told to account for them, of two lovers slain, whose spirits watch over agriculture, and to whom fowls and birds are sacrificed.


Miscellanea.

383. Omens of rain.—To stop rain, take water from seven houses in an earthen pot, and bury it. Or, make a doll to represent a traveller, and stand it under the sky. Or, a virgin plasters a place with cow dung, and buries a frog, saying "My Allah! I will take out my frog when the rain stops." [These two perhaps turn on the pity of a god for creatures in pain, a Buddhist idea. Compare iii. § 285, and index to Jātaka, trans., vol. ii., s.v. 'Throne.']

384. Nepal.—Sacred fish in a brook, which to kill would cause death. [Totem?]

388. N.-W. Provinces.—At a sneeze, a Hindu will say, "May you live a hundred years." [The same phrase in Jātaka, No. 155.]

431. Folklore of the Peacock.

439. Legend of Sun and Moon.

443. Magic powers of jade.

445. Cause of earthquakes.

446. N.-W. Provinces.—Wolf's bones bound to waists of children; they make them strong and keep off the evil eye.

W. H. D. R.