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pass over it, usually touching it, and this will prevent 

 misfortune happening to him. 



(e) Harvest rites. 



In Malabar, at the ceremony called Nira, the bringing 

 in of the first fruits, on the morning of the ceremony 

 the priest comes forth from the local temple, preceded 

 by a man blowing a conch. This is the signal for the 

 whole village, and every household then sends out a 

 male member, duly purified by a bath and copiously 

 smeared with ashes, to the fields to gather some ears of 

 paddy. (Logan, Manual of Malabar, Madras, 1887). 



Similarly in Siam, the commencement of the plough- 

 ing season is associated with reliacious ceremonies to the 

 accompaniment of conch music. This ploughing fes- 

 tival or Rek-iia occurs in the sixth month of the Siamese 

 year ; the principal figure is the Minister of Agriculture 

 who acts nowadays in place of the King. Surrounded 

 by the symbols of the rank to which he has been exalted, 

 the Minister is borne in a palanquin to the field where 

 the ground is to be broken. A company of yellow-robed 

 priests act as escort, blowing loud blasts on chank 

 shells as they go. 



After the consecration of the bullocks to be used, the 

 Minister ploughs part of a field, while ladies of the 

 Royal household sow the ground thus broken up with 

 hallowed paddy. 



(/) Marriage ceremonies. 



The chank has important but variable functions to 

 perform at weddings among all Hindu non- Brahman 

 castes in the districts of the south of India, where this 

 shell is blown by the barber (ambattan) particularly at or 

 immediately after the tying of the tali ox marriage badge 

 around the bride's neck ; the bridal couple usually occupy 

 a raised platform, and round and round this the barber 

 walks while blowinof his chank. In Benoral this custom 

 of chank-blowing during weddings is even more general ; 

 a common formula which runs 



" Ganga ka pani samundra ki sank 

 Bar kanya jag jag anand " 

 (May Ganges water and sea-chank betide 

 Enduring bliss to bridegroom and bride) 



