Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/37

Rh worshipped, and cooked rice is given to them. Cows generally eat cooked rice freely but bullocks and horses will not as a rule. Towards evening festoons of aloe fibre and cloths containing coins are tied to the horns of bullocks and cows and the animals are driven through the streets with tom-tom and music. This ceremony is not much observed in populous towns or by the Brahmans. They merely worship the cow during the day time. But in the villages, especially in villages inhabited by the Kalla or robber tribes, the maiden chooses as her husband him who has safely untied and brought to her the cloth tied to the horn of the fiercest bull. The bullocks are let loose with their horns carrying valuables amidst the din of tom-tom and harsh music which terrify and bewilder them. They run madly about and are purposely excited by the crowd. A young Kalla will declare that he will run after such and such a bullock—and this is sometimes a risky pursuit—and recover the valuables tied to its horn, and he does so often in a dexterous manner. These tamashas take place on a grand scale in villages round about Madura and Tinnevelly where Kallas live in large numbers.