44 PROPITIATING KOOMBAPPAIL 



When we were catching elephants or hunting tigers, Koombappah was 

 always in request, and the promise of a sheep, or so many cocoanuts 

 and plantains, would be made by the trackers to insure his co-operation. 

 In the event of success, I had, of course, to stand expenses. The bargains 

 were invariably made dependent on Ivoomljappah's performing his part first ; 

 no one ever thought of trusting him beforehand ! Once I exjiended thirty 

 rupees in having his premises whitewashed and repaired, upon the occasion 

 of our catching our first elephants. All the villagers asked after Koom- 

 bappah the moment they were mustered to drive the elephants on the eve 

 of the eventful day, and when they were told of the munificent inducement 

 which had been held out to him to insure them against accidents, they 

 entered on their work with a confidence that conduced not a little to success. 

 Poor fellows ! was I, merely because I did not myself believe in Koom- 

 bappah, to leave tliem in fear because their god had not been propitiated ? 



On another occasion when elephants were near our enclosures at Koom- 

 bappan Goody, I thought the ringing of the old cracked sheet-iron bell, and 

 the noise and talking of the people, might disturb the herd, so I asked 

 the Poojaree if he could not take Koombappah somewhere else for a time. 

 He said that if I would lend some men to build a temporary shed further 

 down the river, and give liim seven rupees (fourteen shillings) for incense 

 and other expenditure, he would move Koombappah. This I gladly acceded 

 to, and with much ceremony by the ryots, Koombappah was escorted to his 

 new quarters. There was no image to represent liim ; he was supposed to 

 move in the spirit. I sometime afterwards got access to the holy of holies, 

 and found Koombappah was only represented by a circle and other figures 

 on the floor-slabs. 



In talking of natives and their religion, I cannot refrain from narrating 

 an amusing pious fraud which was practised on the credulous villagers near 

 ]\Iorlay by three sharp fellows from the Hyderabad country. The very 

 simple means they employed were as follows : They arrived at Hurden- 

 hully, a village near Morlay, and took up their abode in a toitc, or clump 

 of trees. One was represented to be an ascetic on a pilgrimage from 

 Kasi (Benares) to Ilumeshwaram, the holy cities of Northern and Soutliern 

 India ; the other two were his attendants. The holy man soon attracted 

 the attention of the people by the austerity of his religious observances. He 

 had long, unkempt locks, a rag round his loins, and his body was plentifidly 

 besmeared with cow-dung and ashes, after the manner of Indian devotees. 

 He spent his time in sitting apart in a reverential attitude, nuittoring 

 incantations and invocations, and appeared to be wholly wrapjied u]i in tlie 

 contomphitiun of divine tilings. His companions attended to his few wants, 



