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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1903.
family is never mentioned ; nor the beauty of another spoken of in his presence : if this be done, the one concerned spits out loud to counteract the evil. The ceremony of raising the bridal pair to the marriage platform is fraught with much ill to the relations who do so; if a person takes up any high office which he is not worthy to fill, evil will befall him, and serious consequences will follow should he rend any ironically laudatory verses written by a person possessed of the evil mouth (katavaha); when anything clever or smart is said by anyone, the listener opens his mouth and closes it with his hand. These ill-effects are dispelled by various means : either a packet made of some sand trodden by an evil visitor is taken three times round the head and thrown into a chatty of live-coals (gini kabala), or a receptacle containing the ashes of the upper part of a cocoanut shell, some burnt incense, and a few clods of earth from the neighbouring gardens is buried in the compound. When the evil influence on a family, a village, or on an occupation as fishing or agriculture, is great, a ceremony called Gard Yakuma is performed by men of the Oli caste: a platform is erected on a field or by the sea-shore, and on it the dancers, sometimes naked, but generally dressed in bideous garments, go through a series of antics from evening to morn.
The principle of life (kaldva) that is in man rises with the new moon and travels every month from the left foot to the head and down again on the right side ; ite movement is reversed in a woman, where it goes up the right side and comes down the left; it resides every day in a particular place, an injury to which causes death. The course it takes is the big toe, sole of the foot, calf, kneecap, yoni or lingam, stomach, pap, armpit, neck, throat, lip, cheek, eye, part of the head and down the other part of the head, eye, cheek, &c.
Death comes from different directions on different days : from the north on Sunday, north-west on Monday, west on Tuesday, south-west on Wednesday, south on Thursday, south-east on Friday, south-west on Saturday, and east on Sunday,
The south-east is known as the "fire Quarter” (gini kona) and no houses are built abutting on that side for fear of their destruction by fire.
The presence of bats (wawló) in a house indicate that it will be deserted, Medicinal virtaes are ascribed to the flesh xf monkeys (vandurô). The slender loris' (unahapuluvd) face denotes ill-luck, and its eye-balls are used for a love-potion. The lion's (sinhayd) fat corrodes any vessel except one of gold; its roar makes one deaf, and it does so three times :- one when it starts, the second on its way, and the last as it jumps on the victim; it kills elephants to eat their brains.
A cheetah (kottiyd) is the avatar of the small-pox deity; it likes the warmth of a blaze and comes near the farmer's (gamardla) watch-hut in the field, calls him by name and devours him; it also frequents where peacocks abound; it does not eat the victim that falls with the right side uppermost; small-pox patients are carried away by this animal who is attracted to them by their offensive smell; when it gets a sore mouth by eating the wild herb, mimunadandu, it swallows lumps of clay to allay its hunger ; the skin and claws are used as amulets; the tigress has no connexion with her mate after once giving birth to her young owing to the severe travail. A cat (balald) becomes excited by eating the root of the Acalypha indica (kuppa mêniya) and its bite makes one lean; its caterwauling is unlucky.
The grey mungoose (mugatiya) bites a plant that has not been identified (visa-kumbha) before and after its fight with a cobra as an antidote; when it finds it difficult to combat with a snake, it retires to the jungle and brings on its back the king of the tribe, & white animal, who easily destroys the victim. A jackals horn (narianga) is very rare, and it gives everything that its possessor wishes for ; when buried under a threshing floor it gives a hundred-fold. If a dog (balld) yelps or scratches away the earth, it presages illness or death; if it walks on the roof, a house is deserted; and if it sleeps under one's bed, it is a sign of the occupant's speedy death. A bear (valaha) throws sand on the eyps of its victim before pouncing on him, and it does not attack persons carrying a piece of the rock-bine (gal-pahura). When a mouse (miyyd) bites one, the wound is burnt with a piece of gold; it boasts after drinking toddy that it can break up the cat into seven pieces. The porcupine
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