Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/292

276 the sack." But I presume this must mean the empty shell.

The Cocoa-nut holiday is a great day in Bombay. Your Gujarati servants generally become ill a fortnight before the day. You have to grant them leave, or they will stay away without any thought of the future. But this is not because of the cocoa-nut day; the whole month of Shráwan is a prolonged feast-day: there is a little fair every day of it at Walkeshwar. The Mondays are sacred to the goddess of revelry and song. The Vaishnava Máhárájs have the joiliest time of it all through the month.

At Bombay the Esplanade and Back Bay, and of late years Mody Bay, are worth a visit on Baleva day. The fair commences after three, and is kept up till very late. Merchants and traders first go to the sea, propitiate the deity with a cocoa-nut and some flowers duly consecrated. The merchant then receives the Brahman's blessing, with a thread on his wrist, and wends his way homewards through the slow-moving mob, picking up cheap things here and there from the stalls and booths erected on the Esplanade. Some people take a short cruise on the sea by way of first trial; others do the