Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/293

Rh warming, and others still have the nautch performed. But on the whole, compared with other national festivals, Baleva is a tame affair as could be guessed. The show is mostly held on the sea-shore, and therefore affords a picturesque spectacle for griffins and up-country Anglo-Indians.

 The most comprehensive of Hindu holidays, so to speak, is the—

In this holy Shráwan Más Hindus of all castes, and of all parts of the country, keep their high carnival. The whole month is a prolonged holiday, with the four Mondays as special red-letter days. To the stranger the Shráwan festival is the most innocent and least grotesque of the numerous so-called national festivals. It resembles the Christmas more than any other Hindu holiday. Members of a family that may have left the family-hearth on various purposes, meet again; old quarrels are made up, the sacred thread is changed, the new dress is put on (in too many cases the only new dress of the year!), the flower and fruit offerings are placed before the gods. Taking your morning constitutional 