Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c17.50

v2.c17.50

¹ That in a woman eye-brows which meet bring ill-luck is a universally spread belief. Thiselton-Dyer, The Folklore of Women, Chicago, 1906, p. 59, cp. 218. These are the brows which a witch has, the barren woman, the werwolf, the person with the evil eye, and the person who through his demoniac power sends the nightmare, or torments others himself as a nightmare. Crooke, Pop. Rel., ii, p. 263, and the references there; E. H. Meyer, Mythologie d. Germanen, 85; 133; 139. Cp. Th. Zachariae, Kleine Schriften, 361, note 2; 394 below; Andree, Ethnol. Parallel., i, 44; 63; E. Mogk, “Mythologie” in Paul’s Grundriss, i, p. 1022; Krauss, D. Anmut d. weibl. Körpers, 110 (but the Persians and Arabs look on them as a beauty). A man must not wed a maiden whose eye-brows meet. Agnipur., 244.5 f.; Wilson’s Vishnupur., ed. Hall, Bd. iii, p. 105. In both places and in Garuḍapur., 65.116 (corrected from Bṛhatsaṃh., 70.19) a warning is also given against the girl that has dimples in her cheeks when she laughs (Schmidt, Erotik, 627, 628, 629, 631). In the man, however, here also it is otherwise: The peculiar marks of the hero are that he is tall, has a nose like a parrot’s beak, straight-looking eyes overshadowed by brows that run together, and a disposition that is easily aroused, and is inclined to anger and strife. Agnipur., ccxxxvi, 43 (Dutt, p. 845). So too among the Buddhists such brows show great distinction, and a brilliant future. See Schiefner, Bull. der St. Petersb. Ak., Bd. 23, cols. 24, 33; Bd. 24, col. 449; Bd. 20, col. 383; Divyāvadāna, ed. Cowell and Neil, pp. 2, 58, 525, and elsewhere; Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, ii, 389.