Tradition : Principally with Reference to Mythology and the

AFRICA AND AMERICA. 279
to the peacock 1 Compare ch. There is nothing certainly in
XV.] Agni has also his special this account which directly conimage,
that of a stout man, red I nects these Patagonian cereand
hairy as Esau, riding on a monies with the diluvian comgoat
[compare Bacchus, p. 214]. memorations, unless, perhaps, the
Surya is also a red man, sitting | sacred drum ; but there is much
on a wrater lily. He has four in common 1^ with the Pongol and
arms and three eyes. But none I the Mandan which we have seen
of these (deities) are known at to have been commemorative.
Pongol any more than they were The prominence of sun worat
the time when the hymns of | ship will not have escaped obthe
Rig Veda were composed. servation ; but this discovery
The gifts are laid out on cannot militate against my positrays,-a
vase of sugar, or per- tion, for I have already shown
haps an idol, peacock or elephant, (p. 160) that such admixture was
round which will be grouped j probable, and also indicated how
smaller works in sugar for the it was likrlv to have come about.
children. One thing may Any , hostile argument which
not be forgotten, that is a | would seek to deprive those
lime [compare 'gourd/ p. 256]. ceremonies of their significance
This must be as large as money I must be directed to the extrucan
buy, and then be carefully si on of the diluvian symbols.
encased in gold leaf till it looks Further trace of these dilulike
one of the golden apples of I vian ceremonies might be traced
antiquity. The next day is Maha in the Buddhist systems ; but it
(or great) Pongol. It is often would open out too large a quescalled
Surya Pongol. At noon | tion for discussion here.
the sun will cross the equator,
and bring the culminating glory
of the feast. So great a day
must commence with appropriate
ceremonial, and in this instance
it is bathing. In country places
the women run early in the
morning to the nearest tank and
plunge bodily in without undressing"
[This is alluded to by Mr
Gover as "an innovation so uncomfortable
and possibly dangerous
;" but no evidence is adduced
of its being an innovation, and
its being I the custom of the