२१ सामान्योयं धममेतुर्नराणां काले काले पालनीयो भवद्भिः ॥ वहुभिर्वसुधा भुक्ता राजभिः सगरादिभिः । यस्य यस्य यदा भूमिस्तस्य तस्य ॥ तदा फलम् ॥ २२ गामेकां स्वर्ण मेकच भूमिरप्येकमङ्गुलम् । हरन्नरकमाप्नोति यावदाभूतसंप्प्रवम् तडागानां सहस्रं वाप्यश्वमेघशतेन च । गवां कोटिप्रदाने २३ न भूमिहर्त्ता न शुध्यति ॥ स्वदत्तां परदत्तां वा यो हरेत वसुंधराम् । सविष्ठायां वमिभूत्वा पिटभिः सह मन्नति ॥ षष्टिवर्ष महस्वाणि २४ दः । आत्छेत्ता चानुमन्ता च तान्येव नरके बसेत् ॥ वारिदोनेष्वरण्येषु शुष्ककोटरवासिनः । कृष्णसर्पाश्च जायन्ते देववक्षस्वहारिणः ॥ यानीहद २५ तानि पुरानरेन्द्र दर्शनाति धम्मार्थयशस्कराणि । निर्माल्यवान्तप्रतिमानि तानि को नाम साधुः पुनराददीत । वातावविभ्रममिदं वसुधाधि पत्य २६ मापातमात्रमधुरा विषयोपभोगाः । प्रायास्त्र, याग्रजलविन्दुसमा नराणां धर्मः सखा परमद्दो परलोकयाने ॥ लिखितं चेदं ताम्रपड कं करणिक ठक्क र श्री विश्वभूपेनेति V.-Death and Cremation Ceremonies Among the Santals. By the Hon'ble and Rev. A. Campbell, D.D. ON a death occurring in a village the goret or village messenger is informed and he communicates the intelligence to the villagers and says, "( Come, let us cremate him. ” All the relatives within a reasonable distance are also apprised of the occurrence. All assemble with as little delay as possible at the dead man's house, and there is much weeping and wailing on the part of the females. Preparations for the "lifting" are hurried on. Some cotton seed and rice are parched and a fowl is caught. The eldest son puts a rupee between the dead man's teeth, and a bait, loță and some money are placed beside the corpse on the bier. Women mark the body with sindur and grind some turmeric. Fire is taken by lighting a thick straw rope and a handful of thatch is pulled out of the roof. The corpse is then carried on a bed, which serves as a bier, and deposited at the end of the village street where two roads meet, a deep-toned drum is beaten five times, and sometimes guns are fired at the time the corpse is being brought out of the house. Women bathe the hands and the feet of the corpse, and anoint it with oil and turmeric and a little of the parched cotton seed and rice are sprinkled on the ground at each of the four posts of the bed, and the fowl is carried three or four times round it. The body is then removed to the neighbourhood of a tank or stream and a funeral pyre prepared. Women do not go to the place of cremation. After they have performed the services to the dead which fall to them, they go to bathe, and return to put the house in order, and prepare parched rice and grind flour to make bread. When the pyre is ready a part of the head of the corpse is shaved, if it is that of a male, and some red pigment applied to the feet. The eldest son then washes the mouth, feet and hands of the corpse. His younger brothers do the same, as also all relatives present. After this ceremony is over they look to see what in the way of brass vessels, cloth or money have been sent with the corpse. These are all taken possession of, as well as the rupee which was placed between the teeth, and whatever personal ornaments there may be. The body is carried three times round the funeral pyre and then placed on it. The fowl, which has already been referred to, is also carried three times round the pyre, and then nailed to the post on the east side of the pyre. The eldest son winds some cotton thread round a reed, which he lights at a firebrand, and then holding the burning reed in his left hand with his face averted, applies the fire to the mouth of the corpse, and having done so throws the reed on to the pile. At the same time all present throw a small piece of firewood on the pile and say, "Now, do not delay us, consume quickly, see, we are providing the firewood. " The eldest son also throws a bit of firewood on the pyre in the name of each absent relative. Fire is then applied to the pyre by means of the handful of thatch pulled from the roof of the dead man's house. The cremators then retire to the shade of some tree near by, where they are shaved. The dead man's eldest son has both head and face operated on. A small earthenware vessel has been brought to receive the pieces of bone rescued from the ashes. The eldest son, with his own hands, grinds a piece of potsherd into a circular shape to close the mouth of this vessel, and in the centre he bores a hole into which he inserts a piece of the culm of a certain grass.* When the body has been consumed the fire is extinguished by pouring water over it, and the eldest son picks from the ashes a piece of the frontal bone, the collar bone, and the upper arm. These pieces of bone are first washed with water, then with milk, then with turmeric water and again with clean water, after which they are deposited in the forementioned earthenware vessel • Rollboellia perforata, Roxb. and the opening is closed by the piece of potsherd. The grass culm sticks up in the middle. The vessel is hermetically sealed with a paste made with rice flour and turmeric water. As the refuse, ashes, etc., of the funeral pyre would be desecrated if touched by human hand, they are floated away with water, and the area occupied by the fire is delved all over. The delver avoids coming into direct contact with the soil on which the pyre rested by standing on an old hatak or winnowing fan. A mixture of cowdung and water is then sprinkled over the newly turned-up soil, and roasted cotton seed and parched rice are scattered over the places where the four corner posts of the pyre had been fixed. This over, the eldest son and two or three others go home to prepare for the journey to the Damuda (Dāmodar) river, to the waters of which the jang baha, or pieces of bone rescued from the funeral pyre, of every Santal are consigned. The others bathe and wash their clothes in cold water, and then collect whatever was found on or with the corpse; of these the barber is awarded a loța and a piece of cloth, the remainder are carried to the village. On the way they cut four saplings of the Indian ebony tree (Diospyros tomentosa) and pull a few handfuls of chero grass. Arrived at the entrance to the village street one of their number goes to the dead man's house and a woman makes for him four bags, three of leaves and one of cloth. In one of the leaf bags he puts parched rice, in another bread, and in the third husked rice. He also gets some flour, salt, turmeric, ground charcoal, burned clay from the cooking stove, sindur and a well grown pullet. With these he returns to where the other cremators are waiting for him at the entrance to the village where two roads meet. The women of the house follow him wailing, and bringing milk and water in leaf-cups. One of the cremators then makes a little hollow in the ground, and on the side towards the west he marks out a square with the burned clay from the stove, and deposits some rice in the centre of it, and makes three marks round it with sindur. the pullet, marks it with sindur, and putting its He then takes back close to |