Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/80

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68 The Holi : a Vernal Festival of the Hindus.

— "Prima fade we have no reason to suppose that a certain amount of auto-suggestive anaesthesia during the perform- ance of the rite, followed by a suppression of inflammatory symptoms, for which European hypnotic clinics can supply parallels, will not suffice to explain the facts." ^^

With the usual outburst of obscenity and sexual licence the proceedings of the first day of the Holi feast conclude.

On the second day follow the customs of flinging dust and other dirt, with coloured water, on the spectators.

In the Balaghat District of the Central Provinces the people fling dust and cow dung on each other, and worship the local god, Gardeo, to whom women pray for the removal of barrenness.^^ At Poona this takes place on the eleventh bright day of the month Phalguna, when the people visit their priest or a temple of Vishnu, where coloured water is thrown over them ; from this time till the full moon they shout abuse on any one they meet, and rub red powder on their clothes and faces. ^' Among the Ramoshis of the same district, on the day after the fire is lighted, they throw filth at each other, pour mud out of a pot on any respectable man they chance to meet, and challenge him to a wrestling match ; next day cow dung is flung on all well-dressed people.*^ The red dust {ablr) used in these orgies is usually made from the flour of the singhdra water- nut {Traba bispmosa), which grows in tanks, and this is dyed with colour extracted from the red sandalwood {Pterocarpiis satitalinus), or it is tinged orange or yellow with the flowers of the dJidk tree {Buteafrondosa)!^^ Brough- ton gives a curious account of the water-flinging in the Mahratta camp, when Sindhiya used for the purpose a hand fire-engine worked by a dozen men : " we were alter-

" Mati, vol. iv. (1904), p. 57. ^''Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xviii. (1885), Part i., p. 254 et seq. "^^ Ibid., p. 414.
 * ^ Balaghat Gazetteer (Kjoj), vol. i., p. 123.

Part i., pp. 360 et seq.
 * ^ G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Pi-oducts of India, vol. vi. (1892),