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NOVEMBER, 1896.]
THE DEVIL WORSHIP OF THE TULUVAS.
299
He replied :-"Yesterday I could not come for something has happened. I hope you have already heard of it."
Then the Ballal said :-"If something has happened, why did you not tell me?"
"As I was starting to come here in order to tell you," said Sama Alwa," your servant came to call me, and I have accompanied him."
On this the Ballal said "O Sama Aļwa, tell me what has happened in your house."
Then Sama Alwa began from the beginning and related to him the whole story, and the Ballal of Parmale said to him :-"You have no daughters. Therefore, God has given you this daughter. Marry her to your nephew."
To this he replied :-"So think I, and I do according to your commands."
Then the Balla] asked him :-"When are you going to give her in marriage ? Ask me for whatever you want. Do not be afraid."
Then he said :-" Everything requires your help." Then the Balla] said again:-“Ask me whatever you may want."
Then he said :-“Up to this day I have never once given a big feast. Therefore, this time I must give a feast to all my castemen in this town. If I do not, they will excommunicate me."
Then the Balla! asked him :-"O Aļwa, tell me how much you will require."
He replied :—“Sir, I shall require half a corjee of rice. I want your help in this. This is the chief item."
Then the Ballâļ said :-" O Sama Aļwa, why are you afraid? I will help you. I will give you whatever you require."
Then Sama Alwa replied :-"It is true that you will give me this now. But must I not return it afterwards ? What shall I say of a feast which is to be given by contracting debts ? Many have come to poverty and sold their lands and houses by contracting debts during marriages. If one becomes poor, the rich look down upon him. The poor man is lighter than cotton."
At this the Ballal said :-"Do not talk too much, but go home and make everything ready. Whatever is wanting I will supply."
At this, Sama Aļwa said to the Ballá!:— Sir, please give me permission to go now." " When will you come again ? " asked the Ballal. “To-morrow I will come again, Sir," replied he, and went home.
When he reached home he called his sister and said to her :-"O sister, I went to the Balla! of Parmale and saw him and spoke to him, and have come back. He told me to make everything ready for the marriage-feast, and promised to give me whatever was wanting. I told him that I was glad of the opportunity of patting some grains of rice upon my nephew's head."
Afterwards he called his nephew Sayana Beidya and said to him :-"Now we must make everything ready for the marriage. Therefore, go and take paddy from the store and get it boiled and dried, and get rice prepared at the rate of one mura a day. Get half a corjee of rice (twenty-one muras) prepared."
So he went and did as his uncle had ordered him. Afterwards Sama Alwa sent for the devil-priests of the stana of Parmale. He sent also for his neighbours and others of his castepeople. He got a pandal raised in front of his house, and got the floor made smooth and even, and made everything beautiful. And when the devil-priests and others, who were his neighbours, came to him, he went to meet them and brought them to his house, and gave them mats,
