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and drinks the dust thereof shall have daughters only. This superstitious
belief was probably spread in order to remove these rocks from the way by people wanting to break the rocks and take their stones along. As a result, everyone who passes this way takes from this rock this useless gift for himself and his wife. This superstition would persist as long as the rock lasts. There is a white stone at the Ras al-Thawr Mountain, nearly two
manzils distant from Malitayyah. The warriors of this island take the dust of the stone for their wives (to administer as a love-philtre) so that they might love their husbands more and not look at any other man. A poet says: The stone that would enamour the hearts of women, having menses,
towards fools, is not to be found in 'Arfah.
HAJAR AL^BARD
Hamzah writes:
Only one stone among the stones that prevents hoar-frost and hail
and which during the times of the Khusraws used to be called sang makrah — remains extant in the village of Ruyadasht. It is a village among the villages of Qasan, and is situated in the direction of Isfahan. Whenever clouds having hail appear the people take it to the fortifying wall or fortress and suspend it from the projecting beam. Clouds then disperse. We find such tales and superstitious stories reproduced in books
upon agriculture. One of these is that a virgin should come out into the open with a white cock or that a tortoise should be buried on its dorsal side. The foolishness and idiocy of such tales are self-evident. What else would these talks be except an exercise in futility? Their impossibility, both from the viewpoints of rationality and observation, is quite evident. Only those who seek escape from rationalism and demonstration resort to them and are inclined towards trivial things. The people of India have, in particular, exaggerated these superstitions as they are inclined towards beliefs in magical and animistic practices and are ensnared by the Brahmins. The latter exact toll in the form of foodgrains from the villagers saying that they have done away with hoar-frost. Their claim goes unchecked as the truth or falsehood of their claim cannot be verified. The fact is that the hail may fall at one place and not at another. A cloud carrying hoar-frost does not rain as would a rainy cloud at all places. Occasionally such a cloud is very thick, black and broken. It travels at a high speed, since it is wafted by air. if, therefore, it does throw large rain-drops, and, if the drops of water underneath it freeze, they take the form of hail. It is quite possible that one field may receive |
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