Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/237

Rh the idol is taken in procession by the washerman, who goes to every Reddi house, and receives a present of money. At a wedding among the Īdigas (Telugu toddy-drawers), the brother of the bride is fantastically dressed, with margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves in his turban, and carries a bow and arrow. This kodangi (buffoon) is conducted in procession to the temple by a few married women, and made to walk over cloths spread on the ground by the village washerman. The cloth worn by a Kāpu girl at the time of her first menstrual ceremony is the perquisite of the washerwoman. The tribal deity of the Tsākalas is Madivālayya, in whose honour a feast, called Mailar or Mailar Pandaga, is held in January immediately after the Pongal festival. Small models of pots, slabs of stone such as are used for beating the wet clothes on, and other articles used in their work, are made in rice and flour paste. After they have been worshipped, fruits, cooked vegetables, etc., are offered, and a sheep or goat is sacrificed. Some of its blood is mixed with the food, of which a little is sprinkled over the pots, stones, etc., used during washing operations. If this ceremonial was not observed, it is believed that the clothes, when boiling in the water pot, would catch fire, and be ruined. The festival, which is not observed by the Dēsa and Golkonda Tsākalas, lasts for five or seven days, and is a time of holiday. At the first menstrual ceremony, the maternal uncle of the girl has to erect a hut made of seven different kinds of sticks, of which one must be from a Strychnos Nux-vomica tree. The details of the marriage ceremony are very similar to those of the Balijas and Kammas. The distribution of pān-supāri, and the tying of the dhornam to the pandal must be carried out by an assistant