Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/257

Rh They observe pollution for three days, during which they do not enter their fields. On the fourth day, they anoint themselves with castor-oil and turmeric, and bathe.

Mr. G. F. Paddison informs me that he once gave medicine to the Porojas during an epidemic of cholera in a village. They all took it eagerly, but, as he was going away, asked whether it would not be quicker cure to put the witch in the next village,who had brought on the cholera, into jail. A Bonda Poroja dance is said to be very humourous. The young men tie a string of bells round their legs, and do the active part of the dance. The women stand in a cluster, with faces to the middle, clap their hands, and scream at intervals, while the men hop and stamp, and whirl round them on their own axes. The following account of a dance by the Jhōdia Poroja girls of the Koraput and Nandapuram country is given by Mr. W. Francis.* "Picturesque in the extreme," he writes, "is a dancing party of these cheery maidens, dressed all exactly alike in clean white cloths with cerise borders or checks, reaching barely half way to the knee; great rings on their fingers; brass bells on their toes their substantial but shapely arms and legs tattooed from wrist to shoulder, and from ankle to knee; their left forearms hidden under a score of heavy brass bangles; and their feet loaded with chased brass anklets weighing perhaps a dozen pounds. The orchestra, which consists solely of drums of assorted shapes and sizes, dashes into an overture, and the girls quickly group themselves into a couple of corps de ballet, each under the leadership of a première danseuse, who marks the