Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/189

  Hook-Sivinging in India. 163

was still observed in certain villages, but was said to be less frequent and attractive than formerly.

In Coimbatore hook-swinging was less frequent than formerly.

In Rajahmundry it had lost none of its former attraction or frequenc}'.

In the Kurnool district the observance of the ceremony appeared to be less frequent, and it was at times confined to a few villages only.

Forty villages in the Guntoor district still held to the rite.

The Magistrate of Nellore described four varieties of the ceremony, viz. :

1. Gaulaupooseedy, i.e., a man hung to the end of a

cross-beam fixed on a post by the skin etc. of his back with iron hooks.

2. Gumpaseedy, i.e., a man sitting in a basket or on a

plank hung to the end of cross-beam of ditto.

3. Puccaseedy, i.e., iron hooks fixed in the sides of

a man who has to walk round a pagoda.

4. Tallaseedy, i.e., a man hung to a post by a rope tied

to his waist.

In one or other of these forms the festival was being" celebrated in 119 villages of the district, once a year in some, and in others at intervals of from two to thirty years. In twenty-two villages it had been postponed for periods varying from ten to eighty years, owing to disinclination and inability on the part of the villagers to celebrate the festival.

The Magistrate of South Arcot reported that the swing- ing festival had in his district neither declined nor increased in attraction, and it was observjed in only a few places.

In Masulipatam the practice of swinging prevailed in several villages spread over the greater part of the district. The Magistrate reported that it was somewhat on the decrease, more on account of want of funds to encourage and recompense performers than because the exhibition