Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/153

Rh The last set of stanzas proceeded with the words:

The last six stanzas vary only in the invitations addressed to the spirits, which are requested to ascend the house-ladder and wash their feet, to take their seat upon the mats that are spread for them, and to enjoy to the full the good things (e.g., betel-leaf, &c.), which their hosts have provided for their refreshment. The invocation concludes with an appeal to the spirits not to be too rough, but to be mild and gentle, and as its wailing notes die away, it is believed that the seven spirits descend and "perch" like birds upon the palm-blossom. At this point the fiddle stopped and tambourines were substituted, the spray of blossom forthwith proceeding to jump about on its base, as if it were indeed possessed, until it eventually dashed itself violently down upon the mat-covered floor of the dwelling.

After one or two repetitions of this performance, with Che Ganti's wife as the medium, other persons present (myself amongst them) were invited to try their luck with it, and did so with varying success, which depended, I was told, upon the impressionability of their souls, as the palm-blossom spray would not dance for anyone whose soul was not impressionable. I myself must unfortunately have been one of these people, as I never experienced the slightest tremor, and the palm-blossom remained motionless until I got tired of waiting, and moved it myself, when my doing so was of course hailed as the manifest work of the spirit.

When the first blossom-sheaf had been destroyed by the rough treatment which it had to undergo (as each time at the conclusion of the dance it was dashed upon the ground),