Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/369

 Collectanea. 333

females. When rains fail, the Kapu females catch hold of a frog and tie it alive to a new winnowing fan made of bamboo. On this fan, leaving the frog visible, they spread a few margosa leaves and go singing from door to door the following song : " Kappalamma nirdde. Kadavalu koddi vana iche. Marro vana divara " — which means " Lady frog must have her bath ; O rain god, give a little water for her at least." This means that the drought has reached such a stage that there is not even a drop of water for frogs. When the Kapu female sings this song, the woman of the house brings a little water in a vessel, pours it over the frog, which is left on the fan outside the doorsill, and gives some alms. The woman of the house is satisfied that such an action will soon bring down rain in torrents.

In Bellary the rainfall is often most deficient, and the agriculturists have a curious superstition about prophesying the state of the coming season. The village of Mailar, in the extreme south-western corner of the Kadagalli Taluq, contains a Siva temple which is famous throughout the District for an annual festival held there in the month of February. This festival has now dwindled into more or less a cattle-fair. But the fame of the temple continues as regards the Karanika, which is a cryptic sentence uttered by the priest containing a prophecy of the prospect of the agricultural season of the ensuing year. The pujari of the temple is a Kuruba. The feast in the temple lasts for ten days. On the last day of the feast the god Silva is represented as returning victorious from the battlefield after having slain Malla with a huge bow. He is met half-way from the field of battle by the goddess. The huge wooden bow is brought and placed on end before the god. The Kuruba priest climbs up the bow as it is held up by two assistants and then gets on the shoulders of these men. In this posture he stands rapt in silence for a few minutes looking in several directions. He then begins to quake and quiver from head to foot. This is the sign of the spirit of the Siva god possessing him — the sign of the divine afflatus upon him. A solemn silence holds the assembly, for the time of the Karanika has approached. The shivering Kuruba utters a cryptic sentence, such as Akasakke sidlu bodiyuttu, " Thunder struck the sky." This