Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/166

150 the second figure from the left. Having explained the method by which rotation is effected, I now proceed to describe the actual insertion of the hook and suspension from the pole, together with other details of the ceremony. As shown by photographs Nos. 7, 8, and 9 (Plates VI., VII., and VIII.), a portion of the fleshy part of the victim's back is pulled taut by being held between the thumb and fingers of the left hand of the chief operator,—the man who is to insert the hook,—while another portion about three inches higher up or lower down, (depending upon whether the hook is to be inserted in the right or left side), is held in a similar way by his assistant. Photographs 7 and 8 (Plates VI. and VII.) show the hook being inserted into the left and No. 9 (Plate VIII.) into the right side of the back, the hooks pointing outwards, as seen in photographs 10, 11, and 12 (Plates IX., X., and XI.). The flesh being thus held, the chief operator takes a careful aim and inserts the hook with a single lightning-like thrust. The hook itself is blunt, and its passage is facilitated by an extremely sharp false point, socketed at one end to allow of its being placed on the hook. As soon as this point with the hook attached to and following it have been passed through the flesh, the former is taken off for use in inserting the second hook by an exactly similar process through the other side of the back directly opposite to the first one, as seen in photographs 10, 11, and 12 (Plates IX., X., and XL). When the primitive conditions under which this is carried out are borne in mind, the precision and expedition with which the insertion of the hooks is effected are remarkable, and a comparison of what I may call the finished job in this part of India with that shown in the illustration facing page 493 of E. Thurston's Ethnographic Notes in Southern India is very interesting. To the shanks of the hooks several feet of rope are attached, as seen in photographs 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 (Plates VIIL, IX., X., XL, and XII.). Garlands of flowers are next hung round the devotee's head and neck, others