Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/192

 1 66 " Hook-Simnzinz " in India.

4. In Chingleput it was connected with the religious

feeh'ngs of the people.

5. To the Magistrate of Canara it was reported that

the ceremony formed no part of the religious

worship of the Hindoos, and was merely the

fulfilment of a vow made in times of extreme

sickness.

It will be seen that from four districts it was reported

as being directly or indirectly connected with religious

customs and practices, and from one only was it said to be

undertaken merely in fulfilment of a vow.

In summing up these reports, in Selections from the Recoi'ds of the ]\Iadras Govermnetit (Madras, 1854), the opinion was expressed that the swinging festival was on the whole less frequently observed than formerly, and that it did not seem to be in any way connected with the religion of the observers, but to be performed in fulfilment of vows. Why these two motives were regarded as being mutually exclusive does not appear; nor is it in the least obvious why, in the face of the evidence, even to anyone so viewing them, the latter rather than the former should have commended itself for acceptance. The fact is, of course, that the Government of Madras were concerned only in putting down a practice which they considered to be "revolting in its nature and so injurious in its effects on those who witness it," and, as a result of the moral and indirect pressure that was brought to 'bear throughout the Presidency, the custom of hook-swinging, although not made illegal, began rapidly to decline.

In The Cochin Tribes and Castes, Mr. L. K. Anantha Iyer gives the following account of "hook-swinging" as practised in that part of India : —

" There are two kinds of hook-swinging, viz. Garuda thookkam (Brahmini kite-swinging) and Thony thookam (boat-swinging), and the ceremony is performed in fulfilment of a vow to obtain