Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/87

Rh one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till day-break, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who have