pigs. They ate ihcm with tcUsh. Also in the forcsl I tound at 

 several bushes where /)uika usually come up several marks of 

 upturned earth, indicating that the pigs had been digging for the 

 putka. [1 etler in my Munda file] 



I was careful not to divulge the feason this question was being 

 asked. There are a number of genera of underground fungi 

 divided among scores of species, and 1 should be surprised if 

 they all drew pigs but perhaps they do. 



Mr. Gausdal asked also about the smell of aging /)///Ay/. Mr. 

 Tudu replied, with unconscious humor: 



I collected some putka. both hor pufka and seta pulka. and put 

 them in dishes in dry condition as well as wet. just to see what the 

 smell would be like after decomposition. In both the smell emitted 

 was that of decomposing wood material, not at all bad m the sense 

 of anv blooded being. The smell was never too strong or filthy. 

 The worst I could compare, the smell was that oi rotting jute in 

 muddv water. 



Kramrisch tells me that rotting jute in muddy water creates a 

 fearful stench. Mr. Tudu possesses the endearing quality of dirt 

 farmers everywhere: their fondness for the smell of dung heaps, 

 for example, is powerfully colored by what dung means for the 

 crops. The earthy smells of farm yards also possess a likeable 



integrity. 



The Gausdal-Gora Tudu correspondence was conducted in 

 Santali, but my questions and his answers to them were in 

 English. 



* * * 



We know that the Santal have not always hved where they do 

 now. Si.x hundred years ago they lived to the west of Benares on 

 the Chota Nagpur plateau, and tradition has it that long before 

 then the Santal had lived much further to the West, just where 

 no one knows, but possibly near the ancient center of Brahmani- 

 cal sacrifices, where they could have had close relations with the 

 Aryans, perhaps serving them before and through the shift from 

 Soma to the Putika. This would also explain the other Sanskrit 

 words in Santali that Mr. Boddinu notes. Indeed he remarks in 



232 



