November 15, 2026
SUGAR-CANE
In the Sugar plantations of the Indies, several superstitious ceremonies are preserved. It being customary to reserve a few plants, it sometimes happens after the fields are planted, that there remain several superfluous canes. Whenever this happens, the husbandman repairs to the spot on the 11th of June, and having sacrificed to the Nagbele, the tutelar deity of the Sugar-cane, he immediately kindles a fire, and consumes the whole. If a Sugar-cane should flower again at the end of the season, and produce seeds, it is looked upon as a funereal flower, and as portending misfortune to the owner of the estate or his family. If, therefore, a husbandman sees one of these late-flowering canes, he plucks it up, and buries it without allowing his master to know anything of the unfortunate occurrence, willingly taking to himself any ill-luck which may accrue.
The bow of Kâmadeva, the Indian Cupid, is sometimes represented as being formed of Sugar-cane, sometimes of flowers, with a string composed of bees. His five arrows were each tipped with a blossom, presented to Kâmadeva by Vasanta (Spring).