As a mark of mourning for the death of any relations, the red or yellow line in the centre of the Vishnu mark, (sríchúrnam), and the red spot in the centre of the forehead of the Smártha Saivas (akshata) is changed to white for ten or more days. The Mádhvas simply omit the red spot, wearing only the black streak. The Smártha Saivas and Mádhvas also follow this custom on fast days.

It may be asked what are the marks worn by women? No woman, who has a husband, has need of sacred marks, as she has no ceremonies to perform requiring them. Her husband does all her religious ceremonies for her, and he is her god. The wife does, however, perhaps for ornament, wear a mark in the centre of the forehead. It is usually made with vermilion, but sometimes it is black. It varies sometimes a little in shape, being either somewhat horizontal or perpendicular according as her husband is a Saiva or a Vaishnava, but it is generally merely a round spot. This spot is omitted altogether during mourning, and also during a certain period. Widows, however, have to perform certain ceremonies for themselves, and they wear the same marks as their husbands wore; only they must be those that exhibit mourning, that is to say without the coloured marks. The Vaishnava widows do not wear the full white mark on the face, only a line between the eyes and part way down the nose. Some Vaishnava widows, in the present day, do wear the Sríchúrnam or coloured central line, only in that case they do not put on the side white lines. Probably, however, those who do thus are comparatively few in number. Married women are in the habit of rubbing their faces and feet with water in which saffron has been mixed. This is perhaps only done for beauty's sake, to appear fair! At any rate a widow, to whom all enjoyable and pleasant things are denied, must not thus adorn herself.

In going over these various details one cannot but be reminded of the Christian mark, the mark of the cross made upon the forehead at baptism, or of that seal mentioned in the book of the Revelation where the angel "Sealed the servants of our God in the

forehead" (vii. 3). And the servant of Christ, the true Incarnation of the Living God, cannot but rejoice that, though but slowly still none the less surely, the Trident is giving way to the Cross, the marks of Vishnu and Siva to the marks of the Lord Jesus:

"Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. ii. 4, 5.)

CHAPTER VII.

THE HINDU TONSURE.

farat. (Sikha).

By the command of the Véda, the ceremony of tonsure should be legally performed by the three first classes in the first or third year after birth. (Manu II. 35.)

Perhaps nothing impresses a stranger in India so much as the peculiar manner in which the Hindu treats his hair. He sees some with a clean shaven head, except a top knot of greater or less size and length whilst others have portions only of the scalp shaven, leaving most fantastic locks of varying size and shape. On the other hand some few are to be seen with the head covered with long, thick, tangled hair that seems as though it had not been interfered with, in any way, either from the tonsorial, or the toilet point of view, since the hour of birth. The absence of any head covering in so large a number of cases of those to be met with in the streets and thoroughfares, gives ample opportunity to observe the peculiar modes of dealing with the hair to which allusion is here made.

It is by no means easy, for the uninitiated, to arrive at the true reason for this varying coiffure; and personal enquiry of a chance acquaintance, would, probably, result in but little true information. If the ordinary Hindu were accosted and questioned on his own tonsorial peculiarity, he would probably have no reason whatever to give for it, except the universal answer to such questions, of its being the custom of his caste. Indeed very few of the Hindus know the reason why of any of the habits and customs that strike a foreigner as so peculiar; and they would perhaps treat as ridiculous any catechising on such matters-the custom exists and therefore it is followed,

that is quite enough for them; and if they are satisfied why should others trouble about it.

It is intended in this chapter to give some account of the Hindu manner of wearing the hair, and of the reasons why for the same. It must be premised, however, that nothing is here intended by way of an elaborate or learned disquisition. In this, as in other chapters, our chief efforts will be directed to giving a more or less popular account of things that lie on the surface of Hindu life, and concerning which so little is really know, even amongst the natives themselves in general, not to mention ordinary Anglo-Indians in particular.

Under the title of "The Hindu Tonsure" it will be necessary to allude somewhat to the moustaches and other hair of the sacred person of the twice born; for the hair, as almost everything else, enters into the complex religious ritual of the Brahminical religion; indeed, as will be seen further on, the hair is thought to be a symbol of sin, and the cutting it off a symbolical way of casting off sin; still, as the sacred top-knot is of prime importance, that will be the chief subject upon which we shall enlarge. The Sanskrit name of this top-knot is sikha, and by that name it is known amongst the upper classes of all Hindus whatever their vernacular. In Tamil it is called cudimi, in Telugu zuttu.

It is curious circumstance, and one suggestive of further study, that whilst the tonsure of the Roman Catholic Priest-the first ceremony in dedicating a person to the priesthood-consists of shaving a circle on the crown of the head, the Hindu tonsure-one of the chief ceremonies in the Upanayanam, or investiture with sacred powers-consists of removing all the hair except a circular portion situated on the same part of the head.

Although the sikha is so important that without it a Brahmin is not a Brahmin,-the tonsure and the investiture with the Yagnōpavītam being the chief elements in the Upanayanam or spiritual birth of the twice born, there seems to be but very slight foundation for so complicated a superstructure. Learned

Shástris seem to be unable to give anything on the point from the Védas except the mantram that will be quoted by and bye, and the allusions to the same in Manava Dharma Sastra. The ceremonies, as is the case with so many others, appear to have gradually grown with the growth of the rest of the Hindu rituals. The first notice of it that appears in the Laws of Manu is where, probably in allusion to the Vedic mantram, the thing itself is taken for granted in the following notice:

"By oblations to fire during the mother's pregnancy, by holy rites on the birth of the child, by the tonsure of his head with a lock of hair left on it, by the ligation of the sacrificial cord are the birth taints of the three classes wholly removed." (II. 27.)

Hair ceremonies may be said to commence before the birth of a child at all, as, for some six months before that event, the father abstains altogether from shaving until the eleventh day of the child's birth. Doubtless this ceremony is set aside in many instances in the present day of compromises, especially in the case of Government and other officials who would not think it respectful to appear before their superiors with a beard of such a growth. By orthodox Hindus, however, and especially those in rural parts who have not yet learned to accommodate themselves to circumstances, this custom is still strictly followed.

In the laws of Manu it is thus written :—

"By the command of the Veda, the ceremony of tonsure should be legally performed by the three first classes in the first or third year after the birth." (II. 35).

This command is still strictly carried into effect; but it is now usually done at about the third year instead of the first. There are instances where the hair of a boy may not be cut at all until the Upanayanam ceremony. This would be in the event of either of the parents making a vow to that effect. Suppose the infant were taken ill, or any like misfortune were to happen to him, a vow might be made to a certain god, that the first hair-cutting of