Purim

“ It was the eve of the great Purim feast—the memorial which had been kept now for three hundred years of the great deliverance which God had wrought for His people by the hands of Mordecai and Esther. The thoughts of the comrades naturally turned to this memorable day.
“Where and how,” said Micah to his companions, “shall we keep the Purim feast?”
“Shall we keep it at all?” said Azariah, always somewhat disposed to take a gloomy view of their [pg 346] prospects. “A Mordecai we have, none more steadfast; and there is a Haman against us even more cruel and wicked than he of Persia. ”

“ According to Jewish tradition it is held in celebration of the deliverance of the Jews from the massacre plotted against them by their enemy Haman in the time of Artaxerxes, who fixed upon the former date by casting “lots” (=Hebrew loan-word Purim) . It is preceded by a fast on the 13th day of Adar, known as the Fast of Esther, based upon Esther iv. 16.
Purim is the carnival of the Jewish year. Friends exchange gifts, and thus occasion is taken to relieve the necessities of the poor in the most considerate manner under the guise of gifts. ”

“ On Purim day they erect a bonfire, and cast the effigy into its midst, while the boys stand round about it jesting and singing. And they have a ring suspended in the midst of the fire, which (ring) they hold and wave from one side of the fire to the other.”884 Again, the Arab historian Albîrûnî, who wrote in the year 1000 a.d., informs us that at Purim the Jews of his time rejoiced greatly over the death of Haman, and that they made figures which they beat and burned, “imitating the burning of Haman.” ”

“ Sayce's supposition (Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. xix. 280, 281) is not to be taken seriously. The origin of the Jewish feast and fast of Purim is still obscure. The fact that there is both a fast (14th Adar) and a festival (15th Adar) is a safe indication of antiquity. Zimmern's view of a possible relationship between Purim and Zagmuku is untenable, but that there is a connection between Purim and some Babylonian festival follows from the fact that the two chief personages in the Book of Esther—namely, Mordecai and Esther—bear names identical with the two Babylonian deities, Marduk and Ishtar. ”

“ They are brought into this honourable position by an entirely new Teutonic theory of Purim: not Mr. Frazer's. It was lately an old Jewish Tammuz rite, or quite a new adaptation of the Sacæa. But 'it is possible,' says Professor Nöldeke, 'that we have here' (in Purim) 'to do with a feast whereby the Babylonians commemorated a victory gained by their gods over the gods of their neighbours, the Elamites, against whom they had so often waged war. ”

“ In short, Purim has lost its character, because Jews have lost their character, their disposition for innocent, unanimous joyousness. We are no longer so closely united in interests or in local abodes that we could, on the one hand, enjoy ourselves as one man, and, on the other, play merry pranks, without incurring the criticism of indifferent, cold-eyed observers. Criticism has attacked the authenticity of the Esther story, and proposed Marduk for Mordecai, and Istar for Esther. But criticism of another kind has worked far more havoc, for its "superior" airs have killed the Purim joy. ”

“ The custom of wearing costumes on Purim wherein a man will wear a woman's dress and a woman wears men's clothes is not forbidden because it is only done out of joy. The same is true of wearing rabbinically forbidden mixed fabrics. ”

“ They therefore permit themselves a regular debauch; ranks are reversed, slaves lord it over their masters, laws are in abeyance; in Tonquin reviving law only takes notice of treason and murder. In Borne, at the Saturnalia, and at Purim among the Jews, however, a kind of [Pg 189] Dickensite Christianicy prevailed at the period of licence; also in Persia, at the period called Purdaghân, which Hyde compares to the Sacæa and Purim: as does Lagarde, in writing on Purim. ”

“ At the feast of Purim in particular such displays were likely to occur. On that occasion it was their practice to erect a gibbet, to which a figure representing Haman was fastened, and whenever his name occurred in the service for the day they broke out into furious execrations against him. On the occasion of one of the celebrations of this feast at Inmestar, a city of Chalcis, near Antioch, their insolence was carried to a most shocking height. ”

“ And he said that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai hinted a little of this in the holy Zohar, and the inference was that the way he now knows about this matter of the Ba`al haSadeh, known.
153 In the year [5] 567 before Purim he traveled from here, Breslev, and no simple explanation was known to any man regarding that trip. And he traveled then to Navritch and wanted to travel further on but became held back there during the days of Purim in the house of the local rav who was somewhat of an in-law. ”

“ These are my companions male and female. This serpent guards the town, even when we are all asleep. Luckily hast thou come here. I shall try with all my companions to bring to thee all objects of desire. Be thou the lord of this Puri for one hundred years. And accept all enjoyments brought by me." Puranjana entered the Puri and lived in enjoyment there for one hundred years.
Of the nine gateways, seven were upper and two lower — five on the east (Purva, which also means front) , one on the south (Dakshinâ) , one on the north (Uttara) and two on the west (Paśchima) . ”

“ Nevertheless, Pûran did not die, as no doubt the enraged father hoped and expected; for God preserved the innocent Prince, so that he lived on, miraculously, at the bottom of the well, until, years after, the great and holy Guru Goraknâth came to the place, and finding Prince Pûran still alive, not only released him from his dreadful prison, but, by the power of magic, restored his hands and feet. Then Pûran, in gratitude for this great boon, became a faqîr, and placing the sacred earrings in his ears, followed Goraknâth as a disciple, and was called Pûran Bhagat. ”

“ The Kurram Valley.—The Kurram Valley, which is drained by the Kurram river and its affluents, lies to the south of the lofty Safed Koh range, and reaches from Thal in Kohát to the Peiwar Kotal on the borders of Afghán Khost. It has an area of nearly 1300 square miles and in 1911 the population was estimated at 60,941 souls. Though under British administration, it does not form a part of any British district. The people are Patháns of various clans, the predominant element being the Turís, who are Shias by religion and probably of Turkish origin. ”

“ I saw my Prue comfortably engaged in seating the trowsers of Adoniram, our eldest boy—an economical care to which my darling Prue is not unequal, even in these days and in this town—and then hurried toward the avenue. It is never much thronged at that hour. The moment is sacred to dinner. As I paused at the corner of Twelfth Street, by the church, you remember, I saw an apple-woman, from whose stores I determined to finish my dessert, which had been imperfect at home. ”

“ And New England was the first home of the Puritans—the focus from which have radiated the myriad beams of the light of which they were the repositories to the remotest corners of the land. Let no one be alarmed at the mention of the word Puritan. There are some people who have no other notion of a Puritan than that of a close-cropped, saturnine personage, having a nasal twang, who is forevermore indulging an [245] insane propensity to sing psalms, quote Scripture, or burn witches. ”

“ These staid Puritan planters were mounted on sturdy farmhorses, and a pillion was strapped on behind each saddle, and on it was seated wife, daughter, or perhaps a young child--I should like to have seen the church-going dames perched up proudly in all their Sunday finery, masked in black velvet, a sober Puritan travesty of a gay carnival fashion. Riding-habits were hardly known until a century ago, and even after their introduction were never worn a-pillion-riding, so the Puritan women rode in their best attire. ”

“ Life, they sang, should be all jollity: away with care and duty; leave wisdom to the weak and old, and sanctity for fools. Watching the sport from a neighboring wood stood a band of frowning Puritans, and as the sun set they stalked forth and broke through the circle. All was dismay. The bells, the laughter, the song were silent, and some who had tasted Puritan wrath before shrewdly smelled the stocks. A Puritan of iron face—it was Endicott, who had cut the cross from the flag of England—warning aside the "priest of Baal," proceeded to hack the pole down with his sword. ”

“ And as Strang gripped that hand Captain Plum saw the young girl's face over the prophet's shoulder—a face, white as death in its terror, that told him all he had heard was a lie.
"And when you have done with my people," continued the king, "you will go among that other race, along the mainland, where men have thrown off the restraints of society to give loose reign to lust and avarice; where the Indian is brutified that his wife may be intoxicated by compulsion and prostituted by violence before his eyes; where the forest cabins and the streets of towns are filled with half-breeds ”

“ The race has spread over all Northern India. In the Punjab they have been converted to the Musalman faith, are called Rangars, and are alleged to be Musalman Rajputs ; in other words, descendants of the Yadubans kings. Kurmis.—The Kurmis are again a dubious race, are not found in the Punjab or in the Meerut Division; their centre is Behar and the Central Provinces, where they form with the Mális half of the Hindu population. They are very numerous in the Deccan ; they spread north, and in Oudh they are about a fifteenth; in the North-West Provinces they dwindle to a thirtieth. ”

“ Nothing can exceed the dread which the Purrah inspires. The people speak of it with terror and awe, and look upon the members of it as enchanters who are in compact with the devil. The Purrah itself is solicitous to diffuse this notion as much as possible, esteeming it a good mean for increasing its power and influence. ”

“ The advent of the light-hearted Cavaliers in England, flinging colour and warmth and gaiety over the land, was a sharp recoil from the drab severity of Puritan rule. The Puritans were men of strong personality: half soldiers and half preachers. They were honest without charm; strong-minded without pose ”

“ Baptismal nomenclature to-day in the United States, especially in the old settlements, bears stronger impressions of the Puritan epoch than the English. Their ancestors were Puritans, who had fled England for conscience’ sake. Their life, too, in the West was for generations primitive, almost patriarchal, in its simplicity. There was no bantering scorn of a wicked world to face; there was no deliberate effort made by any part of the community to restore the old names. ”

“ One of the Ghoorka sentinels, in the meantime, seeing him on his feet, had approached him. 'Does the Rajah Sahib require anything?' he asked.
'I want to know if Bâl Narîn has been seen,' said Tom.
'Bâl Narîn has not come back to camp,' answered the man.
'Then, of course, he has not been seen,' said Tom impatiently. 'Have you heard anything?'
'We have heard nothing but the beasts of the jungle. Purtab killed a serpent. It would have stung him. The gods grant that it may not bring misfortune!'
'The gods have brought Purtab good fortune, my friend. ”

“ The Kurmi’s status appears to be that of the cultivator and member of the village community, but a large proportion of the Kurmis are recruited from the non-Aryan tribes, who have obtained land and been admitted into the caste, and this tends to lower the status of the caste as a whole. In the Punjab Kurmis apparently do not hold land and are employed in grass-cutting, weaving, and tending horses, and are even said to keep pigs.32 Here their status is necessarily very low as they follow the occupations of the impure castes. ”

“ But Prue was a New Englander, and devout in the New England fashion, and she settled back on Divine Providence with great thankfulness. She argued that no scheme of things could dispense ruthlessly with so wonderful an affair as the theory of erosions. Therefore the scheme of things would take care of the only possessor of the theory. Indians lost their terrors, she and little Miss Prue fell asleep together, leaving the doctor still poring excitedly over the octavo of Professor Nincomb. ”

“ The Purrahs do not confine themselves always to the seizure of those who approach their enclosures, but frequently carry off single travellers, and occasionally whole parties, who are imprudent enough to pass from one town to another in certain districts without applying for an escort from the body. To ensure safety, one Purrah man is sufficient, who, while leading the party, blows a small reed whistle suspended from his neck. At the advice of Ba Kooro, I procured one of these persons as a guide from Ma Bung to Ma Yasoo, the intermediate country being thickly inhabited by the Purrah. ”

“ He loves his land, and to lose it is to break the mainspring of his life. His land gives him a freedom and independence of character which is not found among the English farm-labourers. He is industrious and plodding, and inured to hardship. In some Districts the excellent tilth of the Kurmi’s fields well portrays the result of his persevering labour, which he does not grudge to the land because it is his own. His wife is in no way behind him; the proverb says, “Good is the caste of the Kurmin; with a hoe in her hand she goes to the fields and works with her husband.” ”