many Sadhus. The pilgrims placed on the cloth their offerings in cash and kind.

This custom suggests to us many a thought as to how several social manners and customs pass on from the dignitaries of the Church to the dignitaries of the Court and Society. The Oriental Court-custom of holding nazars before Royal princes and personages, is an example of this kind. These nazars are not handed but held before them. I had observed in the Court of H. H. the Maharaja of Cashmere, that those who were accorded the honour of an interview had to hold a nazar before His Highness, and that on a piece of cloth, e.g., an handkerchief held in one hand. When a Parsee priest placed on the Sacred fire of an Atash Behram the offering of sandalwood presented by the worshippers, he is required to do so with a covered hand. He puts on gloves in his hand before doing so. The Sacred Fire also is spoken of as Atash Behram padshah, i.e., Atash Behram the King. From the Church and the State, the practice has crept into Society. The domestics in wellconducted hotels or houses are expected to hand you money or small things not in your hands but on a piece of plate, etc.

It is not only pilgrims that offer gifts of money to the Sadhus, but the Sadhus of a lower grade, when they go to see the Sadhus of higher grades, offer their nazars or gifts. I saw at Nil-parvat, that when a number of Sadhus came to pay their homage to the head of their order, they placed before him gifts according to their means. They speak of three kinds of Durbars or Courts in this order-1. Râj-darbâr, i.e., the court of Kings. 2. Dev-darbar or the court or the seats of their gods and goddesses, i.e., their temples and shrines, and 3. Guru-darbars, i.e., the courts or seats of their gûrûs or spiritual leaders. All these courts require some gifts when you visit them. So, when you go to the Court of your ruler, to your temple or shrine or to your spiritual leader, you must present a nazar or gift,

I have described above some of the customs and eccentricities of the Sadhus as observed in their camps at Nasik. This

Christian monastie Institutions.

reminds

us of the monastic institutions of the own customs. Mr. Workmann's ideal" gives us an interesting

West, which also have their "Evolution of the Monastic and instructive idea of these. The final aim or ideal which we see at the bottom is, that of an "yearning of self-surrender." We find, that with that idea before them, some of the monastic institutions of the West try to keep off temptation as far as possible. In this case, there seems to lie some difference between the East and the West. Here in the East, the Sadhus move about freely in the world even in the midst of temptations. At Nil-parvat near Trimbak, where there lived some naked monks, there went some female pilgrims also, and the naked monks moved about as if there was nothing extraordinary. They seemed to have commanded complete control over themselves in the midst of temptations. On the other hand, we read that in some of the monasteries of the West, in order to keep off all temptations from before the monks, the entrance of women within the limits of the monasteries is altogether prohibited. Not only women, but also animals of the female sex. For example, one can take in, he-goats, cocks, dogs and such other animals of the male sex but not she-goats, hens, bitches and such other animals of the female sex. That is an attempt to keep off temptation with, as it were, a vengeance They say, that some monks there take themselves as polluted if they touch a woman, even by an accident. It is said of a monk there, that he had not seen a woman for 50 years. When at the end of 50 years, he visited, with the permission of the head of his institution, his sister, he did so with bandages upon his eyes. He talked with her but did not see her. Such are some of the extreme eccentricities of the Christian monastic institutions of the West.

528

THE MAGIC OF CANNIBALISM AND

SELF-RESUSCITATION.

BY G. E. L. CARTER, ESQ., I.C.S.

(Read on 26th July 1922.)

Introduction.

As the paper attempts to blend diverse matters of belief, a key to the underlying idea is perhaps necessary. It will be found to open with a few stories illustrating a widespread belief in the magic power of flesh as food, especially human flesh, which in some way was also connected with the resurrection of the body. It proceeds to discuss two tales regarding the physical resurrection of the body. It points out how in other places this is connected with the magic powers of the crock-pot, and, through that, links up with similar beliefs in Ireland and India of how evil spirits have the power of selfresuscitation. Semitic lore is then referred to and it is seen how it breaks away from the real meaning of the original beliefs. In the Lernean Hydra of Greece, Azi Dahaka of the Parsees, and the Bestial Trinity of the Book of Revelations we get a remarkable connected belief in a many headed god, one of whose heads is immortal, with power as it were of self-resuscitation. These stories again link up with the Parsee cult of Anahita. A brief reference to the Bene-Israels of India shows how they have to recent times maintained a fragment of lore which has been declared inexplicable.

The purport of the paper is to establish the real meaning of a passage in the Satapatha Brahmana, which the translator had some little doubt about (he accepting the true meaning only in a footnote) and the real meaning of the Avestan injunction against cooking (and presumably eating) the Nasu.

Tale of the seven headless men of Hilaya.

In the fifth year of the magnificent Jam Tamachi's reign, Shaikh Baha-ud-din Zakkaria, the majestic saint of Multan-who according to the best authorities died in the 660th year after the Flight-being urgently invited by his disciples at Tatta to grace with his presence the happy land of Sind was induced to comply with their prayer. To such an extent did he delight men's minds by his spirit-stirring words and deeds that the said disciples (may they and their fathers' graves be desert) abominably resolved to kill and eat him-expecting thereby to secure for themselves the perpetual benefit of his presence and to raise their recreant selves to a higher degree in the spiritual world. A strange way, you remark, to propitiate a holy man; a very common one, I assert, in the wilder parts of Central Asia as any sceptic may learn by asking the Afghan Hazaras how they came by the number of saints buried on their mountains. As regards devouring the venerated defunct it is done with the superstitious popular idea that whoever tastes the flesh and blood of the great Santon thereby eats himself holy as Templars dine themselves "learned."

Nor indeed must the rite be considered so very peculiar. One should bear in mind that the Christian The Eucharist. Eucharist is wholly based upon a symbolic feast on the substantial interpretation of which Protestants are at an unbridgeable variance from Catholics. The rite too recurs in the High History of the Holy Graal,

A tale of Gawaine.

disguised by early Christianity.

very thinly "(Gawaine)

....cutteth off the head and cometh there where the king's child lay dead, whereof he is right sorrowful. And he beareth him on his neck and taketh the giant's head in his hand and returneth there where he had left his horse and shield and spear and mounteth and cometh back and bringeth the king's son before the king and the head of the giant hanging ....And he looketh at his son and lamenteth him right sweetly and all they of the castle after him. Thereafter he

maketh light a great show of torches in the midst of the city and causeth a great fire to be made and his son to be set thereon in a brazen vessel all full of water and maketh him to be cooked and sodden over this fire and maketh the giant's head to be hanged at the gate.

When his son was well cooked he maketh him to be cut up as small as he may and biddeth send for all the high men of his land and giveth thereof to each so long as there was any left.... He biddeth send for all the men of his land to come to his hall and castle." Sir," saith he, "I am fain to baptize me." "God be praised thereof," saith Messire Gawaine......and of all them that were not willing to believe in God, he commanded Messire Gawaine that he should cut off their heads.

"Sir," saith Messire Gawaine, "I would fain ask of a king. When I had brought him his son back dead he made him to be eaten by all the folk of his land." "Sir," saith the priest, already had he leant his heart upon Jesus Christ, and would fain make sacrifice of his flesh and blood to Our Lord and for this did he make all those of his land eat thereof and would fain that their thoughts should be even such as his own. And therefore was all evil belief uprooted from his land so that none remained therein."

A cannibal oath.

The same cannibal oath was found among the Greek mercenaries in Egypt by Herodotus. "Phanes has two sons. The mercenaries took these and leading them to the camp, displayed them before the eyes of their father; after which they brought out a bowl, and placing it in the space between the hosts, they led the sons of Phanes, one by one, to the vessel and slew them over it. When the last was dead, water and wine were poured into the bowl and all the soldiers tasted of the blood, and so they went to the battle; stubborn was the fight which followed and it was not till numbers had been slain upon both sides that the Egyptians turned and fled.”