Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/359

Rh worship them. The shoes are placed in front of the image of the god near the foot of the hill, and are said to gradually wear out by the end of the year. At a pseudo-hook-swinging ceremony in the Bellary district, as carried out at the present day, a Bedar is suspended by a cloth passed under his arms. The Mādigas always swing him, and have to provide the hide ropes, which are used.*

In an exceedingly interesting account of the festival of the village goddess Ūramma, at Kudligi in the Bellary district, Mr. F. Fawcett writes as follows. "The Madiga Basivis (dedicated prostitutes) are given alms, and join in the procession. A quantity of rice and rāgi flour is poured into a basket, over which one of the village servants cuts the throat of a small black ram. The carcase is laid on the bloody flour, and the whole covered with old cloths, and placed on the head of a Mādiga, who stands for some time in front of the goddess. The goddess is then carried a few yards, the Mādiga walking in front, while a hole is dug close to her, and the basket of bloody flour and the ram's carcase are buried. After some dancing by the Mādiga Basivis to the music of the tom-tom, the Mādigas bring five new pots, and worship them. A buffalo, devoted to the goddess after the last festival, is then driven or dragged through the village with shouting and tomtoming, walked round the temple, and beheaded by the Mādiga in front of the goddess. The head is placed in front of her with the right foreleg in the mouth, and a lamp, lighted eight days previously, is placed on top. All then start in procession round the village, a Mādiga, naked but for a few margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves,