Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/190

 158 Jhill-baiting, Biiil-7'acinQ\ Bull-fights.

the heavier will be the rainfall, the more rapidly will the crops grow.^

In another form of the custom, the Kunbi cultivators in the Central Provinces observe the Pola or " Bull " festival in the middle of the rainy season. An old bullock goes first, heading the procession of the cattle. On his horns is tied the makhar, a wooden frame with pegs to which torches are fixed. They make a rope of mango-leaves stretched between two posts, and the makhar bullock is forced to break this and stampede back to the village, followed by the other cattle. It is said that the animal which bears the makhar will die within three years.*® From this it would seem that he is regarded as a sort of scape animal, carrying with him the ill-luck of the village. But with this rite we may also compare the widespread custom of carrying torches round the fields to disperse evil, produce fertility and sunshine.*"

At the close of a long paper it is impossible to consider the question of bull-baiting in Great Britain. The materials are extensive, and we must await the new edition of Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, now in preparation by the Society, before they become available for study.

I would only call attention to the remarks of Miss Mabel Peacock on the custom of Shrovetide football played in the bull-ring at Sedgefield, in a paper contributed to the Society in 1896, which are relevant to the present discussion. She wrote : " The connection of the game with a ring to which bulls were formerly attached for baiting is very curious. Although, as far as I am aware, the fact has never been pointed out by any one discussing the origin of

■*' K. V. Russell, Nagpur GazetUer, i. 95.

^^ Idem, Castes and Tribes of the Centra! Provinces, iv. 40; Ethnographic S7i7-vey Central Provinces, part ix. 63 et seq.

■*'W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals of the Period of the Kepiiblic, 77 et seqq.; Sir J- Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. part v. vol. i. 570., 297 n. 5 ; part vi. 316 et seqq.