Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/57

Rh is described as follows. A Pānān, who is an adept in the black art, bathes early in the morning, dresses in a cloth unwashed, and performs pūja to his deity, after which he goes in search of a Kotuveli plant (Manihot utilissima). When he finds such a one as he wants, he goes round it three times every day, and continues to do so for ninety days, prostrating himself every day before it. On the last night, which must be a new-moon night, at twelve o'clock he performs pūja to the plant, burning camphor, and, after going round it three times, prostrates himself before it. He then places three small torches on it, and advances twenty paces in front of it. With his mouth closed, and without any fear, he plucks the plant by the root, and buries it in the ashes on the cremation ground, on which he pours the water of seven green cocoanuts. He then goes round it twenty-one times, muttering all the while certain mantrams, after which he plunges himself in the water, and stands erect until it extends to his mouth. He takes a mouthful of water, which he empties on the spot, and then takes the plant with the root, which he believes to possess peculiar virtues. When it is taken to the closed door of a house, it has the power to entice a pregnant woman, when the foetus is removed (cf. article Parayan). It is all secretly done on a dark midnight. The head, hands and legs are cut off, and the trunk is taken to a dark-coloured rock, on which it is cut into nine pieces, which are all burned until they are blackened. At this stage, one piece boils, and is placed in a new earthen pot, with the addition of the water of nine green cocoanuts. The pot is removed to the burial-ground. The Pānān performs a pūja here in favour of his favourite deity. Here he fixes two poles deep in the earth, at a distance of thirty feet from each other.