Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/57

Rh The bashingham * was made of the leaf of a wild tree,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Wild turmeric was used for the kankanam † ,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Wearing a garment made of the leaves of the paru tree,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Wearing a bodice made of the leaves of the pannu tree,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Roaming over inaccessible hills,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Wandering through dense forests,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Committing acts that ought not to be done,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Obalesa's marriage was celebrated,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

A four-cornered dais was made.
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

On the dais arrows were stuck,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Bamboo rice was used to throw on the heads of the pair,
 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

Cocoanut cups were stuck on the points of the arrow,


 * Oh! the lord of the Chenchus.

The marriage was thus celebrated. At a dance in my honour, men and women executed a series of step dances in time with a drum (thappata) resembling a big tambourine, which, at the conclusion of each dance, was passed to and fro through a blazing fire of cholum straw to bring it up to the proper pitch. An elderly hag went through a variety of gesticulations like those of a Dēva-dāsi (dancing-girl). A man dressed up in straw and fragments of mats picked up near my camp, and another disguised as a woman, with bells round his ankles, supplied the comic business.