Chap. XXVII. 



FESTIVALS. 



473 



form their suppers. The holiday fare is cakes of pulse and 

 sugar, and balls of split gram aud spices.^ 



These hard-working people generally wear nothing but 

 a dirty rag between their legs, and another round their 

 heads. On holidays, however, they come out in a white 

 turban, a frock of white cloth coming down to the knees, 

 a cloth round the waist, and a pair of drawers. The 

 furniture of their dwellings generally comprises two wooden 

 pestles and a stone mortar, earthenware and copper utensils, 

 a wooden dish for kneading dough, a flat stone and rolling 

 pin for powdering spices, two ii'on cups for lamps suspended 

 by a chain, and two couches laced with rope ; the total value 

 being about 40 shilliugs. 



The men, as well as the women, are very fond of attending 

 annual pilgrimages at the temples, and several festivals 

 break the monotony of their working days, the chief of which 

 are the HooU, the Dussera, the Dewallee, and another in 

 honour of the cattle. The Hooli is held at the full moon iu 

 April, and lasts five days. The Dussera, to celebrate the 

 destruction of the Demon Mysore by the Goddess Kali, 

 is in October, and the Dewallee twenty days afterwards. 

 The cattle festival is in August, when the oxen are painted 

 and di'essed up, fed with sugar, and worsliipped by their 

 owners. In the hot dry months the cultivators hmit deer, 

 hares, and wild hogs. 



* The natives of India are supplied, 

 by Nature, with an endless variety 

 of condiments to season their food, 

 many of them growing wild. In the 

 diiferent parts of India I noticed as 

 many as twenty-five ingredients used 

 in curries and porridges. The tender 

 leaves and legumes of the agati 

 [Agati grandiflora) ; oil from the el- 

 loopa fruit ' Bas$ia longifolia) ; young 

 unripe gourds of the Beuincasa ceri- 

 fera ; the papaio fruit ; cocoanut-oil ; 

 the leaves of Canthium parvijlorum ; 

 capsicums ; cinnamon ; leaves of Coc- 

 culus viUosus ; turmeric ; cardamoms. 



jhingo {Luffa acutangula) ; the fmit of 

 Momardica cliarantia ; green fruit of 

 Morinda citrifoUa ; the legumes of 

 tlie horse - radish - tree {Ili/perunthera 

 Moringa) ; the plantain ; the tender 

 shoots of the lotus ; tlie pickled seeds 

 of a NymjyJixa ; the leaves of I'remna 

 latifolia ; berries of Solanum verhasci- 

 folium; legumes of Trigonella tetra- 

 petala ; the white centre of the leaf- 

 culms of lemon-grass ; the LabJab 

 cuUratus ; onions ; the fruit of Sapotu 

 elingoides in the Neilgherries ; the 

 mooiig {Fha^eolus mungo) ; and many 

 other pulses. 



