Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/198

 1/2 "" Hook-Sivinging'" in India.

thus being regarded as a corrupt form of the Hindu charak piija, and at its celebration " the young people, Santals and Hindus, spend one night in gross immorality.""-^

The compiler of the Midnapur district Gazetteer wxxl^^ : —

" A former District Officer states that hook-swinging still goes on, in spite of all efforts made to stop it, and that he has seen hook- swinging marks in the backs of six out of eight /trZ/CV bearers collected by chance." —

In the Bankura Gazetteer is quoted an account of hook- swinging Avhich appeared in the bidian Methodist Times for June, 1900. There is nothing remarkable about it. The arrangements were much the same as those witnessed by myself. When questioned as to why it was done, some said it was for the fun of the thing, others because they wished to return thanks for benefits received, and a few said they did it out of devotion to Siva.^^

In the same district hook-swinging was practised until the last few years in many of the villages near Sarenga. The Santalis were as eager to swing as the Hindus, and at one recent festival six swings were " kept busy from early morning until the sun was well nigh overhead," and " so anxious were the people to secure their turn that frequently two men were lashed together on to the arm of the revolving cross bar." -^

The information afforded by the compilers of the Bengal Gazetteers is of much the same nature_ as, but perhaps of less value than, that of the Madras officers. The former dealt with the ceremony more casually and incidentally, so to speak ; whereas the reports of the latter were furnished in response to a specific official request. We have no information as to the relative extent of the practice in the two Presidencies at any given date, but from the evidence of the Bengal officers it is clear that at one time or another

-^ Bengal Disti-ict Gazetteers, Santal Pargauas, p. 130.

''■^ Ibid., Midnapur, p. 68. -^ Ibid., Bankura, pp. 54-6.

^^Ibid.., Bankura, p. 77.