Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.2

v2.c14.4.2

A delightful account of the wise oracular utterances which are made especially by the swarm of aunts, godmothers, and woman-neighbours about a supposed magical being of this kind, is given by Juho Reijonen, a pleasing Finnish novelist of our day, in his *Vaihdokas* (The Changeling). Indeed, Żmigrodski states: "Witch and lying-in woman are in Aryan tradition almost one and the same" (*Die Mutter*, p. 177). The death of a woman in child-bed is always a magically dangerous misfortune in India (see e.g. *Anthropos*, vi, 872 f.; vii, 85 f.; iv, 68); she becomes, at least in the belief of some primitive tribes, a very evil spirit, called Churel or Chorail, which wanders about with the feet turned backwards. Billington, *Woman in India*, p. 100; Crooke, *Things Indian*, Lond., 1906, p. 131; *Popul. Relig.*, etc., i, 269-274; *Anthropos*, iv, 679 (Pahariya); vii, 649, 659 (Khond); *Zeitschr. für Ethnol.*, Bd. 6, p. 344. Cp. Ploss-Bartels, ii, 579 ff.; Żmigrodski, 148; E. H. Meyer, *Mythol. d. Germanen*, 31; 56; 101 f.; cp. 43; A. Jeremias, *Allgemeine Religionsgesch.* 2, p. 53 (among the old Babylonians). In the belief of the Urau they are clothed in white, and have a pleasing face, but a coal-black back. *Zschr. f. Ethnol.*, Bd. 4, p. 344 (after Dalton). Like those who have met an accidental death, women that die in child-bed are buried by the Nāgas in the jungle without any rites.