Episode in the Wanderings of ŚivaAuthor(s): G. W. BriggsSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 357-358Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/594221 .

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BRIEF NOTES

Episode in the Wanderings of giva Two rosaries worn, by Yoglis and other ascetics are commonly

spoken of as made up of stone beads. In fact they are composed of nummulites which are of the size and shape of grains of rice or of puffed rice. Both rosaries are obtained on the difficult pil- grimage to the vdmacdri temple of Hifig Ldj Devi in southern Baluchistan. That made of the smaller beads is called Hifig LAj kd Thumra; the other Asapulrl. The former is said to consist of pet- rified grains of millet, or jawdr (sorghum), the other of petrified grains 1 of rice or bajra (bullrush millet). The former is the one more commonly worn, and is evidently the more prized. It con- sists of five hundred or a thousand beads. Both sizes of beads are obtained at Nagar Thatha, about seventy miles north of Karachi, on the plateau in the Makli Hills, overlooking the Indus. The table land 2 in this neighborhood is strewn thick with pebbles and nodular lumps of hard, yellow limestone, which is sometimes quite speckled with little nummulites. These become detached and lie on the ground in such quantities that it has become a trade to collect and string them for ascetics travelling to Hig Ldj. The pilgrims purchase the rosaries at Nagar Thatha, and, upon reaching Hig Lij, offer them to the Goddess Ndinl. The Thumrd is then put on. When the ascetics reach ASpfirl Devi's shrine at Nagar Thatha, on the return journey, they offer the other rosary to her and then put it on.

The Yogis explain the origin of the marine shells, the " stone " beads by the following legend. giva and PdrvatT, on their way to iifig Ldj, on pilgrimage, stopped in the jungles of Xsapur1. There giva asked his consort to prepare him a dish of khichri, cooked millet and rice, while he went away into the jungle. He then drew around her and her cooking-place a magic circle of ashes, explain-

I Sir Alexander Burnes, in his Travels into Bokhara (1835), vol. I, p. 29, says of these beads: "They resemble the grains of pulse or juwaree; and the pilgrim has the satisfaction of believing that they are the petrified grain of the Creator, left on earth to remind him of his creation. They now form a monopoly and source for profit to the priests of Tatta."

2 See Gazetteer of Sind, Karachi; B Vol. 1, p. 113.

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358 Brief Notes

ing to her that a giant (asura) would, in his absence, come to molest her; but that she would be perfectly safe so long as she remained within the circle, since he would be burned to ashes should he venture to cross the magic line. Siva then left with her his trident and went away into the jungle. While he was gone, the asura came, as -iva had predicted, and Pdrvat! slew him with the trident. The demon's blood ran all about the place defiling every- thing, including the fire-place and the food which she was pre- paring. Soon afterwards giva returned. The giant immediately appealed to the God for release (miukti) and giva granted his request. The asura's spirit ascended to Kdildsa, giva's Heaven. His body, however, turned to dust, and this is still used as incense powder. Seeing how everything had been defiled by the giant's blood, viva ordered Pdrvat! to throw the food away. The grains of the khichri turned into the " stones " out of which the beads for the famous rosaries are made.

G. W. BRIGGS. Drew University.

An Obscure Passage in the Hittite Laws

In KBo VI., obv. I, a law begins at line 11, the second and third words of which have never been understood. The whole section transliterated would be as follows: [ta]k-[k]u hu-u-ws-s.i-el-li-ya-az bu-[u]-tam ku-ils-ki da-a-i-ya-zi [ma-si-ya-an da]-a-i-ya-az-zi an-da- si-ya a-bi-e-ni-is-su-wa-an pa-a-i. The words hu-u-us-si-el-li-ya-az and bu-u-tam have up to the present time defied the powers of interpreters. The first of these words is an ablative and the second is apparently an accusative. The writer would suggest that the first of these words is akin to the Greek xv'rXov 'meaning something that can be poured, a liquid, and that the second of them is the Hittite equivalent of the Teutonic root butte which appears in our English word " butt " meaning a keg or cask or jar,2 and that the

whole law should read: " If anyone steals from a liquid a cask, in

I The change from s to t is comparable to that in Greek itself, where

' four ' may be reTrapes or rcrshapes.

2 The presence in Hittite of a number of words like banana, a large build-

ing, equivalent to English barn; watar, equivalent to English water and

German wasser makes this suggestion probable. Hrozny's suggestion that

BU-[U]-TAN is Akkadian affords no possible translation for the law.

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