Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/393

Rh Kola sacrifice, those who are to be possessed by the spirits wear masks and buckle on swords. As they sing of the deceased father, or grandfather, or other ancestor, his spirit seizes them and they speak as his mouthpieces. To each spirit a sacrifice is offered—a cock, and a bottle of spirits which his representative drinks. The ceremony begins after sunset in the presence of the whole village community, and is continued until morning. About seven or eight o'clock in the morning pigs are sacrificed. The head of one of the pigs belongs to the performers, the rest is cooked in the house to which the temple is attached, and is consumed by the whole community. (163)

Every family has some spot on the estate in a retired part of the jungle land where a sacrifice of a fowl is offered every year to the departed by the living members of the house. No strangers are permitted to attend on these occasions. A stone placed on a rough mound serves as altar. (164)

Each parcel of grass or forest ground has a presiding divinity, to which an annual sacrifice of pork and cakes is offered. If this sacrifice be not made the Kádévaru (i.e. the god watching over the cattle) will withdraw his favour, and sickness and death among the cattle will ensue. (165)

There are some extensive forests called Dévara-Kádu which are untrodden by human foot, and superstitiously reserved for the abodes or hunting grounds of deified heroic ancestors. (166)

Tradition relates that human sacrifices were offered in former times to secure favour of the tutelary goddesses of the Sakti line, who are supposed to protect the villages or náds from all evil influences. Once a year, by turns from each house, a man was sacrificed by cutting off his head in the temple. Now only goats are offered. The he-goat is killed in the afternoon, the blood sprinkled upon a stone, and the flesh eaten. At night the Panikas, dressed in red and white striped cotton cloths, and their faces covered with metal or bark masks, perform their demoniacal dances. (168-169)

In connection with this sacrifice are peculiar dances performed by the Coorgs around the temple: the Kombáta, or horn dance, each man wearing the horns of a spotted deer or stag on his head; the