Note 38 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.

The Râkshasas are said to be always fighting with the gods and their blood remains on many of these ghostly battlefields. In the Hills this is believed to be the cause of the red ferruginous clay which is occasionally observed, and the Lohû or “blood-red” river has a similar origin.38 The same idea appears in the folk-lore of Europe. In a Swabian legend the red colour of shoots of rye when they first appear above the surface is attributed to Cain having killed Abel in a rye-field, which thus became reddened with innocent blood.39 One species of feathered pink has a dark purple spot in it which people in Germany say is a drop of the blood of the Redeemer which fell from the Cross.40 In one of the Irish Sagas the blood of a murdered man fell on a white stone and formed the red veins which are still shown to the traveller.41 In Cornwall a red stain on the rocks marks where giant Bolster died, and the red lichen in a brook commemorates a murder.42 Every English child knows the legend of Robin Redbreast.