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APRIL, 1894.)
THE DEVIL WORSHIP OF THE TULUVAS.
89
They talked a great deal to each other, and clapped their hands on their shoulders with joy. Then they advanced with their faces towards the battle field. Channayya went to the field of seven sérs, and Kôți to the field of seventy sérs. Channayya began the battle in the field of seven sérs. He slew a great number of the enemy, who fell down dead, like bundles of the suggi crop, and completely roated the enemy, and thus ended the battle in that quarter. Then he came to the field of seventy sérs, where the battle lasted seven nights and eight days, during which they tasted neither food nor drink.
"Come back, my brother, I will proceed with the battle," said Channayya.
Kóti answered :-"O my brother! listen to me; you will not be able to stand the attack of the enemy. Wheel-fireworks are showered on our heads; quoits are hurled at our necks; our breasts receive sword cuts; and from behind are discharged showers of arrows. I know that it is your habit to do everything with the greatest circumspection - fight with the greatest caution."
While Channayya was bravely fighting, Koti sat down to chew betel, when Chandagidi shot an arrow at him from behind. The arrow struck him in the lower part of the leg.
He cried out:-"O my brother, the cur of Pañje has bitten me from behind. If it had been a dog of high breed it would have met me in front. Therefore I will not look at the arrow with my eyes, and will not touch it with my hands."
So saying he kicked the arrow back with his leg. The arrow struck Chandagidi in the breast and he fled from his body to Kailasa, and he was then borne to the Balla!'s verandah. The Balla sent a man to bring some medicine from a physician named Barmu, living in the village of Sanje Manje.
Köţi cut the whole of the enemy to pieces, and brought the battle to an end. Having thus terminated the war, he left the field of seventy sérs, and on his way home be saw a man in the field Bakibalatimara in Panje put in chains by the Ballal of that place on account of arrears of rent of one mudi due by him to the ancestors of the Ballal.
The man gazed eagerly at Koti and cried out, "O! If my chains had been broken, I would have wrested the dagger from the hands of Kôți."
"You are to die by this means. Meet your death at bis (Koti's) hands," said the Balla!.
Then the man advanced straight on Kôti, stood before him and said :-"Who is Koti? who is Koți ? Will you give me the dagger yourself or shall I take it from your hands by force ?"
Koti replied :-“If you had come to the field of seven sérs, your fate would have been quite different; but it is a pity that you came to the field of seventy sérs. You need not wrest the dagger from me. I will give it to you of my own free will."
Then giving the dagger, Koti said :-“This, my only dagger, belongs to Brahmara of Kemmule. If you take this with you, you can pass only one field, and when you have passed that, you will not live to pass a second. And if in any way you should succeed in passing two fields, be assured you will not live to pass a third."
With these words he gave the dagger to his antagonist. Koti then went to the foot of a banyan-tree, where there was a gentle breeze, and spreading ont his dirty blanket sat down on it. While his antagonist was passing the third field, the Balla!'s son-in-law, Rukku Ballal, saw Kôti sitting down. The potter? was walking with the dagger in his hands. Rukku Ballal secured his horse in a shady place, and cut off the head of the potter named Padampu. Then, taking the dagger from his hands, he returned home. On the way he asked Kôți, who was sitting down to enjoy the cool breeze, to come along with him to the BallAl's verandab.
"I cannot walk, my lord ! Pour some water into my mouth, and let me go to heaven," said Koti.
* I. e., the antagonist.
