Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/397

Rh captured, small toy arrows are tied round its body, and a piece of cloth is tied on its head. Some drops of liquor are then poured into its mouth, and it is set at liberty. In negociating with a monkey, some rice and other articles of food are placed in small baskets, called tanurjal, which are suspended from branches of trees in the jungle. The Savaras frequently attend the markets or fairs held in the plains at the foot of the ghats to purchase salt and other luxuries. If a Savara is taken ill at the market or on his return thence, he attributes the illness to a spirit of the market called Biradi Sonum. The bulls, which carry the goods of the Hindu merchants to the market, are supposed to convey this spirit. In propitiating it, the Savara makes an image of a bull in straw, and, taking it out of his village, leaves it on the foot-path after a pig has been sacrified to it.

"Each group of Savaras," Mr. Ramamurti writes, "is under the government of two chiefs, one of whom is the Gōmong (or great man) and the other, his colleague in council, is the Bōya, who not only discharges, in conjunction with the Gōmong, the duties of magistrate, but also holds the office of high priest. The offices of these two functionaries are hereditary, and the rule of primogeniture regulates succession, subject to the principle that incapable individuals should be excluded. The presence of these two officers is absolutely necessary on occasions of marriages and funerals, as well as at harvest festivals. Sales and mortgages of land and liquor-yielding trees, partition and other dispositions of property, and divorces are effected in the council of village elders, presided over by the Gōmong and Bōya, by means of long and tedious proceedings involving various religious ceremonies. All cases of a civil and criminal nature are heard and disposed of by them. Fines are imposed as