Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/192

BADAGA front of the temple, one shouting 'How-ko, How-ko,' and the other 'Is-hōli.' The dance was taught them by the Todas, and the words are Toda." In connection with the Jadeswāmi festival the ceremony of walking through fire [burning embers] is carried out at Mēlur, Tangālu, Mainelē, Jakkanāre, Tenād, and Nidugala. At Mēlur and Tangālu, the temples belong to the Hāruvas, who carry out all the details of ceremony. The temple at Tenād is owned by the Udayas, by whom the ceremonial is performed. In other places, the celebrants are Badagas. The festival is observed, on an elaborate scale, at Nidugala during the month of January. All those who are going to walk over the burning embers fast for eight days, and go through the rite on the ninth day. For its performance, Monday is considered an auspicious day. The omens are taken by boiling two pots of milk side by side on two hearths. If the milk overflows uniformly on all sides, the crops will be abundant for all the villages. But, if it flows over on one side only, there will be plentiful crops for villages on that side only. The space over which the embers are spread is said to be about five yards long, and three yards broad. But, in some places, e.g., Jakkanāre and Mēlūr, it is circular as at the Muhammadan fire-walking ceremony. For making the embers, the wood of Eugenia Jambolana and Phyllanthus Emblica are used. For boiling the milk, and setting fire to the wood, a light obtained by friction must be used. The process is known as niligolu, or upright stick. The vertical stick is made of a twig of Rhodomyrtus tomentosus, which is rotated in a socket in a long thick piece of a bough of Debregeasia velutina, in which a row of sockets has been made. The rotation is produced by a cord passed several times round the vertical stick, of