Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/178

 146 Ihill-baitino-, Bull-racing, Biill-fights.

There are various difficulties in accepting the view of this able scholar. But he seems not to have been aware of some curious parallels, which he would possibly accept in confirmation of his views, and it is the main purpose of this paper to describe them.

I need hardly say that we must bear in mind the risk of explaining any custom or ritual by comparison with those current in distant regions, the peoples of which are not connected in any way. Mr. Cook himself admits he is not always satisfied that similarity of performance implies similarity of purpose.^"

With this preliminary caution, we may examine some customs of bull-baiting or bull-driving in India and elsewhere.

Indian ceremonial bull-baiting or bull-driving assumes various forms. The first and most interesting for our present purpose is that popularly known as the Jellicut (properly Tamil Jallikattu, " the tying of ornaments "), the ornament being a piece of cloth attached to the horns of the animal. Among the Maravans of the Madura District in the Madras Presidency, according to one account, the people collect in an open space. The owners of the plough-bullocks in the village bring their animals, brag about their strength and speed, and challenge all and sundry to catch and hold them. A beast is brought out, and a new piece of cloth, the prize of the captor, is made fast round its horns. He is led into the arena, where, excited by the shouts of the bystanders, he charges viciously. He is pursued by the more active and courageous youths of the village, who avoid his charges by dropping on the ground. The game goes on till somebody succeeds in catching him. In this way some two or three hundred animals are " run " in the course of the day. Fatal results to the pursuers are said not to be common, but the sport is by some regarded as so dangerous that the authorities

'' Op. lit. i. preface, xiii.