Page:The Autobiography of an Indian Princess.djvu/52

38 In India, religious festival days are chiefly distinguished by their entertainments. My readers will perhaps be surprised at this, but it is true. On festival days banana trees are placed on each side of the house door, and, at the foot of the trees, large earthern pitchers filled with water, and a big cocoanut. These are the lucky signs denoting an auspicious occasion. A band plays during the whole of the festival. Every one's house is open to rich and poor. Every one receives presents, often very valuable, and no one is too poor to receive something.

Some years ago a poor Brahmin wanted to have durga puja; he was so poor that he had to beg from door to door in order to get a little money to buy the puja articles and to entertain at breakfast and dinner the people who came to see the goddess. This time he could only obtain very little money, but still he invited a small number of guests and when they arrived they were surprised to find the goddess not properly dressed. "How is it," they asked severely, "that the goddess is left like this?" The poor Brahmin said: "I am a poor son of my Mother, and my Mother knows it; I haven't money with which to dress her. The little I had I used to enter- tain my guests; if I had had more I would have invited more guests."

There is another festival in India called "Bhaikota," which is held in the autumn, in October or November, and is in honour of brothers. Early in the morning sisters bathe, put on new saris and wait for their