HUR-PUJA or Har-puja, amongst the agricul tural races of India, the worship of the plough. This takes place on the day which closes the season of ploughing and sowing. It generally occurs in the month of Kartik, but in some places is held both after the kharif and rabi sowing, i.e. in the months of Sawun and Kartik. The plough is washed and decorated with garlands, and to use it or lend it after this day is deemed unlucky. The practice reminds of the Fool-plough in England, a ceremony observed on the Monday after Twelfth Day, which is therefore called Plough Monday, on which occasion a plough adorned with ribbons is carried about, and the peasants meet together to feast themselves, as well as wish themselves a plentiful harvest from the great corn sown (as they call wheat and rye), as well as to wish a God-speed to the plough, as soon as they begin to break the ground to sow barley and other corn.—.Br. Ap. ii. No. 92, Elliot's Sup. Gloss. - HURRICANES.
Tufan, . ARAB., HIND. Tund-howa, . . . HIND. Mon being, . . . Beau. Gird-bad, . . . PERS. Typhoon, Tyfoon, . ENG. Huracau, . . . . SP. Orkun, . . . . GERM. Kyar, TURK..
• Hurricanes have been investigated by Colonel Capper, Quartermaster - General of the Madras army, Mr. W. C. Redfield of New York, Dr. Thom of the British army, Colonel Reid, Mr. G. T. Taylor of Madras Observatory, and Captain dington of Calcutta. A hurricane means a turning storm of wind blowing with great violence, and shifting more or less suddenly, so as to blow half or entirely round the compass in a 'few hours. The present state of our knowledge seems to show that, for the West Indies, the Bay of Bengal, and the China Sea, the wind in a hurricane has two motions, the one a turning or veering round upon a centre, and the other a straight or curved motion forward, so that it is both turning round and ing forward at the same time. It appears also that, when it occurs on the north side of the equator, it turns from the east, or the right hand, by the towards the west, or contrary to the harids of a watch ; and in the southern sphere, that its motion is the contrary way, or with the hands of a watch. Piddington's first
memoir, with the charts and diagrams, allowed that this rule held good for the storm of June 1839 off the; Sandheads, and that the wind was really blowing in great circles in a direction as described, . c i.e. against that of the hands of a watch. He assumed, then, that the hurricanes in the Bay of Biscay always follow this law.
The tyfoons and storms of the China Sea and eastern coast of Asia appear to be similar in character to the hurricane of the West Indies and the storms of the United States coast, when pre vailing in the same latitudes. A tyfoon which occurred in the China Sea in 1831, affords pro bable grounds for connecting the hurricane at Manilla, October 23-24, with that of October 31 at Balasor, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.
Of 61 hurricanes that occurred north of the equator, from 1830 to 1854, their numbers were— in the month of October, 12; May and November, 9 ; September, 8 ; April, August, and December, each 5 ; July, 4; June, 2; and March, 1. In the Bay of Bengal the hurricanes usually occur at the changes of the monsoons, in April and May, and in October, November, and December.
The S.W. monsoon prevails north of the equator, and when it prevails, the S.E. trade-wind acquires additional strength from the demand made upon it to supply the S.W. monsoon, these two winds being apparently one system under the influence of the earth's rotation and the high temperature which prevails in the northern hemisphere, Gales and hurricanes occur in the Indian Ocean south of the equator. Trade-wind gales occur at all seasons, but chiefly in June, July, and August. In these the wind veers but little. In the extra tropical gales, between lat. and S., the wind veers much, and in the tropical hurricanes the winds veer and shift.