Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/83

 to felicitate a friend, to welcome a superior or to celebrate a jubilee, to solemnise a wedding or to initiate a child into learning—aye, at times, to reverence a spiritual head or to honor a religious reviver, her song is the te deum of thankfulness, her dance the exhilaration of enthusiasm. The benediction at many an auspicious ceremony is of her chanting; the longevity of connubial life for many a hopeful bride is secured through the talismanic "black beads" of her stringing. In "temple processions" hers is the lead, while the graceless priest with his unheeded jargon is exiled to a safe distance.* Famine stricken parents, albeit of high caste, may surrender to her custody and profession a child that a foreigner, however pure and respectable, may not apply for. In times of "legal" difficulties she may count upon the support of even some of the titled lead-