Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/190

 164  Hook-Siuinging in India.

had lost any of its attraction. Indeed, in certain villages the practice had been revived, an interesting case in point being that of Goodoor, where the old custom had been recently re-introduced by a pensioned subadar, whose father's sister had performed suttee {sati) there seventy or eighty years earlier. A temple had been erected to her memory, and in commemoration of her immolation a swing- ing festival was annually held. This had ceased for many years until the return of the subadar, when, out of respect to her memory, he restored the temple and re-established the swinging ceremony at his own expense. The cere- mony in this district was not practised exclusively at any particular festival. The magistrate cited a case in which, owing to the party who was accustomed to pay the swingers having left, the villagers, afraid lest a discontinuance of the practice should be productive of calamity, had taken to swinging sheep and pumpkins. He also stated that in case of famine, cholera, or other calamity a swinging exhibition took place for the purpose of propitiating the deity, when a number of goats, sheep, pigs, fowls, and sometimes male buffaloes, were sacrificed. The rite was also prac- tised in expiation of vows, the higher castes sometimes swinging by low-caste proxies to whom they paid a sum of from one to four rupees. In the village of VVeyoor statistics of the number of people swung had been kept for 38 years. The lowest number in any one year was 10, and the highest 313, the average for the whole perfod being jZ. The figures show a gradual decrease. As the result of being present at a swinging festival at Canara the magistrate reported that it was combined with the slaughter of a large number of animals, ^nd that the pole was erected in the close vicinity of a high heap of reeking heads which was constantly receiving additions.

In the Madura district 16 villages were in the habit of celebrating the festival at this time.

The magistrate of Bellary reported that in his jurisdiction