TYPICAL REGENERATION.

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"For the purpose of regeneration," says Coleman, "it is directed to make an image of pure gold, of the female power of nature, in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue the person to be regenerated is enclosed and dragged through the usual channel. As a statue of pure gold and proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to to make an image of the sacred yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass. .

Perforated rocks are considered as emblems of the yoni, through which pilgrims and others pass for the purpose of being regenerated. The utmost faith is placed in this sin-expelling transit.” *

The Hindu custom symbolises the new birth of the soul, the European that of the body. The cloud, the matrix of the vital spark, is represented in the one by the figure of the woman or the cow, in the other by the tree, and in both by the rock.

* Coleman, "Hindu Mythology," 151, 175.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ROWAN OR MOUNTAIN ASH-THE DIVINING ROD-THE MANDRAKE --THE SPRINGWORT-FORGET-ME-NOT-HAZEL-THORN-MISTLETOE.

Of the many ways in which the Vedas recount the descent of the heavenly soma to earth, one is to the following effect. When gods and men were pining for the precious beverage, the falcon undertook to steal it from the demons who kept it shut up in the rock (cloud). The attempt was successful, but as the falcon was flying off with its prize, it was grazed by an arrow shot after it by one of the demons, and lost a claw and a feather. They fell to the earth and struck root there, the claw becoming a species of thorn, and the feather a palasa tree, otherwise called parna, which has a red sap and scarlet blossoms. Trees owning such an origin could not fail to possess many supernatural properties, the more so as the bird from which the claw and the feather had dropped was a transformed god-some hymnists say Indra, others say Agni. Sprung from a god of the lightning, the trees were themselves

THE PALASA ROD.

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divine, and they were incorporations not only of the heavenly fire, but also of the soma with which the claw and the feather were impregnated. The virtues which distinguish them exist in no less degree in many of their European representatives, such as the black and white thorn, rowan or mountain ash, hasel, fern, &c.

The palasa was much employed by the Hindus in religious ceremonies, and particularly in one which has descended to the dairy farms of Germany and Sweden, where it is retained to this day with surprisingly little change.

The milk used in the sacrifice which it was customary to offer in the new moon (the season of increase) on behalf of the Hindu master of a herd, was only to be taken from cows that were still suckling their calves. That there might be enough of it, therefore, it was necessary that the calves should be separated from their dams and driven to pasture. To this end the officiating priest chose on the night of the new moon, or on that preceding it, a palasa or sami rod which grew on the north-east, north, or east side of the tree, and he cut it off saying, "For strength cut I thee." Then having stripped off its leaves with the words, "For sap (strip I) thee," and having placed together at least

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THE PALASA ROD.

six calves with their dams, he struck each of the calves with the rod and drove them out saying, "Ye are winds." This done, he touched the cows, one for all, with the rod, and blessed them, bidding them be good milkers, good breeders, safe from sickness and robbers, and abidingly numerous in the possession of the master for whom the sacrifice was offered. Lastly, he stuck up the rod in front or eastward of one of the two places of the holy fire (the sacrificial and the domestic), and bade it protect the cattle of the same person. A Sanscrit commentator on this rite says that the calf is struck with the parna-rod in order that the soma contained in the latter may pass into the former and enrich its udder. Another states that the calves which have been commended to the protection of the rod will, in consequence thereof, be sure to come safely home from their pasture in the evening—a plain proof that the rod was regarded not as a thing but as a person; it was the incorporation of a god who was able from a distance to protect the young cattle from robbers and wild beasts.

Kuhn has compared with this ancient Hindu ceremony the custom of "quickening" the calves, as it is observed in the county of Mark in Westphalia.

On the first of May the herdsman gets out of bed

QUICKENING THE CALVES.

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before dawn, and goes to that part of the hill on which the sun first shines. There he chooses that sapling quicken tree (rowan, mountain ash) on which the first rays fall, and fells it. This must be done at one stroke, otherwise it is a bad sign. He takes the sapling to the farm-yard, where the people of the house and the neighbours assemble, and the yearling heifer which is to be quickened is led on to the mixen. There the herdsman strikes it with a branch of the quicken tree, first on the loins, then on the haunches, repeating at each stroke a verse, in which he prays that, as sap comes into the birch and beech, and the leaf comes upon the oak, so`may milk fill the young cow's udder. Lastly, he strikes the heifer on the udder and gives her a name. After this, having been regaled with eggs, he adorns the sapling with the shells, buttercups, &c., and plants it in front of the cow-house or over the door.*

Throughout Dalsland, in Sweden, the first "midday driving" of the year is celebrated as follows, a day or two before or after Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday, formerly the high festival of Thor. When the cattle have been driven out to grass, a garland of flowers is set upon one of the posts of the nearest gate through which they will have to return home.

* Woeste, Volksüberlieferungen der grafschaft Mark, p. 25.

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