Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/266

 kambla field consecrated to buffalo-racing, and his pair of racing buffaloes, costing from Rs. 150 to Rs. 500, are splendid animals ; and, except for an occasional plough-drawing at the beginning of the cultivation season, are used for no purpose all the year, except racing. The racing is for no prize or stakes, and there is no betting, starter, judge, or winning post. Each pair of buffaloes runs the course alone, and is judged by the assembled crowd for pace and style, and, most important of all, the height and breadth of the splash which they make. Most people know the common levelling plank used by the ryots (cultivators) all over India to level the wet field after ploughing. It is a plank some 4 or 5 feet long by 1 or 1½ feet broad, and on it the driver stands to give it weight, and the buffaloes pull it over the mud of a flooded rice-field. This is the prototype of the buffalo- racing car, and any day during the cultivating season in the Tulu country one may see two boys racing for the love of the sport, as they drive their levelling boards. From this the racing car has been specialised, and, if a work of art for its own purpose, is not a car on which any one could or would wish to travel far. The leveller of utility is cut down to a plank about 1½ by 1 foot, sometimes handsomely carved, on which is fixed a gaily decorated wooden stool about 6 inches high and 10 inches across each way, hollowed out on the top, and just big enough to afford good standing for one foot. In the plank, on each side, are holes to let the mud and water through. The plank is fixed to a pole, which is tied to the buffalo's yoke. The buffaloes are decorated with coloured jhūls and marvellous head-pieces of brass and silver (sometimes bearing the emblems of the sun and moon), and ropes which make a sort of bridle. The driver, stripping himself to the necessary minimum of