Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/495

Rh disintegrated. The proceedings conclude with distribution of cloths and cheroots, and purification as before. The more prosperous Yānādis now engage a Brāhman to remove the pollution by sprinkling water over them. During the peddadinamu incessant music and drum- beating has been going on, and is continued till far into the night, and sometimes the ceremonial is made to last over two days, in order that the Yānādis may indulge in a bout of music and dancing.

The Yānādis are expert anglers, catching fish with a triangular net or wicker basket. They also excel in diving for and catching hold of fish concealed in crevices of rocks or buried in mud, and assist European sportsmen by marking down florikin. Those who are unable to count bring in a string with knots tied in it, to indicate the number of birds marked. They catch bandicoot rats by a method known as voodarapettuta. A pot is stuffed with grass, into which fire is thrown. The mouth of the pot is placed against the hole made by the bandicoot, and smoke blown into the hole through a small slit in the pot. The animal becomes suffocated, and tries to escape through the only aperture available, made for the occasion by the Yānādi, and, as it emerges, is killed. They are fearless in catching cobras, which they draw out of their holes without any fear of their fangs. They pretend to be under the protection of a charm, while so doing. A correspondent writes that a cobra was in his grounds, and his servant got a Yānādi, who had charge of the adjoining garden, to dislodge it. The man was anxious to catch it alive, and then, before killing it, carefully removed the poison-sac with a knife, and swallowed it as a protection against snake-bite.

The Yānādis are good shikāris (huntsmen), and devoid of fear in the jungle. They hold licenses under the