ORIGIN OF WESTERN FOLK-LORE 301 of everything in the Bible, implanted even in the most liberal of us their pupils a notion that there was at and before the beginning of our era a great gulf fixed between the "Holy Land" and India, so that nothing could have been possibly derived therefrom by Christianity. That error is now exploded, even in Protestant countries, for the Greek and Roman churches must be credited with having for the most part ignored this error. In fact, nearly all of our European and American folk-lore is the débris of Asiatic usage and superstition, such as blessing people when they sneeze; the indication by a burning ear or cheek that somebody is talking about you; the symbolism of the stork; the dog howling at night as a presage of death; and the horseshoe as protection against sorcery. The Covenant of Salt in the East, which in Europe simply represents an idle notion that to spill salt in offering it bodes a quarrel, possesses a meaning traceable to the time when men carried with them on their journeys all supplies except a few very cheap things. Every man was supposed to be "worth his salt," which thus became a symbol of universal brotherhood. If a man were a secret enemy he must manage to spill the salt which a suspicious stranger might demand. In India it is usual for every child to begin a birthday by taking a little salt. It is a sufficient evidence that the book of Job is adapted from an Asiatic original that in the West one of its most significant sentences (i, 22) has been translated, "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly; the real translation being, "In all this Job sinned not, nor offered his sacrifice without salt." Job fulfilled his part of the covenant without faltering. CHAPTER XIV Allahabad-Manwaysh festival - Ganges immersions A Christian Brahman debate - Relic of cobra-worship — River deities-Christian and Brahman doctrines of sacrifice. I WAS sorry not to find Sir Alfred Lyall at Allahabad, but two gentlemen in the Club treated me politely and secured for me a good guide for the great annual festival called Manwaysh—that is, the Junction of the Waters. It is here that the Ganges and the Jumna meet; and to the eyes of faith there is a third river, the Saraswati, which unites with them. The three form the most sacred of the seven streams that fall from the right foot of Vishnu, according to the Vishnuites-from the brow of Siva according to the Sivaites. Inside the fort at Allahabad are the remains of a subterranean temple in which is a sacred fountain believed to be fed by the waters of Saraswati. I was reminded of Coleridge's " Alph" Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, Through caverns measureless to man, Here too a fountain "flung up momently the sacred river; and around it was a strange collection the Bleeding Tree, an upright log at whose base are two footprints of Vishnu; a phallia linga said to have been cut through at a blow by the Moslem Aurungzoo, whereon from one side flowed milk, from the other blood; footprints of Rama and of his wife Sita; and many remarkable images of Krishna, one or two of which appeared to me inclining to be Buddhas. Emerging from this subter ranean hiding-place of images sufficiently rude to seek concealment, my eyes were greeted by the sight of a superb Pillar of Asôka, with its moral laws in good preservation, finely pedestalled and surrounded by a parterre of flowers tended by English hands. It is three miles from the fort to the junction of the rivers, but it was necessary to leave there my carriage, and move on foot through the dense crowd. It was estimated that two millions were present during the two days' festival. As these people were to my eye all alike, the men mostly naked, I had to pin a bit of red on the head-dress of my guide in order to follow him as he pressed on rapidly, shoving people aside. As we drew near to the pro-. montory between the rivers the bazars multiplied, and many banners floated through the air, pictured with all manner of totems, nondescripts, and symbols. On one side was an acre of ground, where a large population, squatted on the ground, were having their heads shorn by barbers. The ground was carpeted with black hair, every hair sacrificed meaning an added year in Paradise. No woman, however, was sacrificing her glory in this way, nor did the women imitate the zeal of many male pilgrims, who covered themselves with mud before plunging into the waters. A priest standing in the water received each muddy pilgrim and besought the river deities to purge him of sin even as the waters washed the mud from his body. The rivers are shallow at their junction, and a continuous procession was wading from bank to bank. The banks far and near were black with the swarm of people. There were lines of barges moving to and fro, and an island made of bamboo boats, from which Hindus were leaping every second. I was soon on a barge, observing the ecstasies of the multitude, aud their loud invocations when immersed. The men wore only the regulation loincloth. The women on the bank passed in frank nudity from their clothes to transparent bathing wrappers. There was no sign of conscious or recognized indecorum, but on the other hand no solemnity, -all were merry. A large portion of the plain had the appearance of a pleasure fair. It was a kind of combination of Nijni-Novgorod and many Methodist campmeetings. There were little extemporized villages (of shanties) intersected by small pathways, and tents with their shrines; there were innumerable fakirs covered with ashes, their foreheads frescoed with symbols, receiving worship and coppers. In one enclosure, to which my guide took me accidentally, some person in authority warned us off. My guide moved away rapidly, but gave me no explanation. It may not have been a religious performance at all. There were many low, broad tables about the grounds, which did service as chairs also, supporting the fruits, grain, and sugar cakes sold as refreshment for both man and gods. There were little burnt offerings for ancestors always going on. Priests were performing some kind of ceremony over devotees who bent their heads to the ground; the priest covered the low bent head with his skirt, muttered prayer or formula with open eyes, received his coppers or cowries, and moved on to the next. At various points boys rang small bells, apparently to attract the people to some priest ready to do something for them. Large numbers of sacred cows were led about, decorated with mystical symbols and chains of coins or imitations of them, besides ribands about their horns. Those who led the little slate-coloured animals expected pice, which were given, however, chiefly to those whose cows exhibited some deformity. The number of these was large enough to be MANWAYSH FESTIVAL 305 zoologically interesting. The monstrosities consisted of little legs or tails coming out of the animal's forehead, shoulder, or rump. These excrescences were handled freely, several of them by myself. Goethe says, "Nature reveals her secrets in monsters," but the Hindu notion is that the secret of some god or demon is contained in each monstrosity. It must be on this principle they placate their fierce persecutor General Nicholson, who fell in the siege of Delhi; and elsewhere an Englishman is worshipped who killed his wife and drank himself to death. A certain reverence seemed to be paid to human infirmities, some of these being frightful enough. The sufferers displayed their "losses" as proudly as Dogberry. Amazing was a female yogi, quite naked, writhing on the ground and filling the air with her ravings. She was said to be "possessed," and received pice therefor. Not far from this was a tent in which a Nautch dancer was performing in pantomime some divine fable. I observed at various points two small boys with painted faces and decorated pasteboard hats, each holding a bow and arrow. They were motionless, and I could not understand the meaning of this recurring wayside tableau, but suspect that it is the last diminutive outcome of Arjuna and Abhimonzu, - the boy warrior now pictured as the "boy hermit." At another point a man was telling a gaping circle something mysterious about a veiled woman who sat near him. The most pathetic sight was that of a London missionary in his tent contending single-handed against a circle of acute Brahmans. There was a large crowd around the disputants. The heat alone was enough to handicap the Englishman; but, apart from that, his task was suf |