Curiosities of Superstition, and Sketches - W. H. Davenport Adams

(Perpustakaan Sri Jauhari) #1

this powder on the middle of his forehead.


They do not eat from bowls or trenchers, but place their food on leaves of the
Apple of Paradise and other large leaves; these, however, they use dry, never
green. For they say the green leaves have a soul in them, and so it would be a
sin. And they would rather die than do what their Law pronounces to be sin. If
any one ask how it comes that they are not ashamed to go about in their nudity,
they say:—“We go naked because naked we came into the world, and we desire
to have nothing about us that is of this world. Moreover, we have no sin of the
flesh to be conscious of, and therefore we are not ashamed of our nakedness, any
more than you are to show your hand or your face. You who are conscious of the
sins of the flesh do well to be ashamed, and to cover your nakedness.”


On no account would they kill an animal, not even a fly, or a flea, or a louse, or
anything in fact that has life; for they say all these have souls, and it would be
sinful to do so. They eat no vegetables in a green state, only when they are dry.
And they sleep on the ground, naked, without a rag of clothing over them or
under them; so that it is a marvel they do not all die, instead of living so long as I
have told you. They fast every day in the year, and drink nothing but water. And
when a novice has to be received among them they keep him awhile in their
convent, and make him follow their rule of life.


They are such cruel and perfidious idolaters that it is very devilry! They say that
they burn the bodies of the dead, because if they were not burnt, worms would
generate and consume them; and when no more food remained for them, they
would die, and the souls belonging to those bodies would bear the sin and the
punishment of their death.


In another part of his immortal work, Marco Polo speaks of the fish-charmers of
Ceylon as Brahmans (or Abraiaman.) The pearl-fishers, he says, pay one
twentieth part of all that they take to these men, who charm the great fishes, and
prevent them from injuring the divers whilst engaged in seeking pearls under
water. Their charm holds good only for the day; at night they dissolve it, so that
the fishes can work mischief at their will. These Abraiaman, he adds, know also
how to charm beasts and birds and every living thing.


Commenting on this statement, Colonel Yule observes that the modern snake-

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