Forlong - Rivers of Life

80
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
important aids towards understanding faiths, that I have searched, though, I am sorry
to say, without any great results, to get some details of Tree fetes. This stream is,
however, evidently hid away beyond our grasp, for although we have many fetes in
groves, yet they are all connected. with phallic, serpent, or solar worship, and beyond
prayers and meditations in the shades of the tree god, I have had little aid from this
source. In Asam we have a fete called the Jaintia, becase held on the first day of
the Jaintia year, which seems to bear a closer connection. to the old tree faith, though
with a dash of phallic and solar in it, than most. It takes place at the midsummer
solstice, or about the new moon of July, when rival villages meet in the midst of a
stream, and contend for the possession of long straight trees which they have previously
barked, and tied tufts of feathers to the ends of. The youths and maids here try to
excel in skill and grace; they dance and sing, and vociferate loudly, like the
Bacchantes of old, whilst all endeavour to show who can break up the largest and
strongest poles. Scenic effect is given by a great display of figures of elephants,
giants, animals, and hobgoblins; but the prominent feature of the whole is this large
boat with its Sivaik-looking shrine, made of bamboo and blue cloth (Siva’s favourite
colour), and rising like a mast from the
centre. In this pagoda, gorgeous with
gold and silver tinsel and bright colours,
is enshrined some sacred figure, regarding
which I cannot get any reliable information.
The boat is accompanied by
a huge bird intended for a peacock, in
whose body is concealed the upper part
of a man, his legs acting for the bird’s.
There is a procession of giants and giant-
Fig. 28—BOAT AND IDOL
esses, also huge figures of bamboo
covered with white cloth; the leader. who
is a man. has a crown, and eleven supplementary heads growing out of his
shoulders—evidently a solar idea.
The locale is where a stream is divided by a village, and just above a fall, and
where the ground becomes highish and open, but where the stream narrows—all of
which is very Sivaik in character. The peacock is par excellence the bird of Sol, and
even among early Christians divided their affections with the dove; some held that
his flesh was incorruptible. The force of much of the above will only become clear to
readers, who have not studied these subjects, as they advance further through these
volumes.
THE MISLETOE.
This parasite, wherever found, was most sacred, but that which came to perfection
on the oak at Yuletide was surpassingly so; our Teuton, Saxon, and Gallic forefathers