MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



223 



audience chimes in with a general grunt which has a most ludi- CHAP. IX, 

 crous effect. The metre of these ballads is generally four feet of FART V. 

 unequal lengths, varying in almost every line, but ending frequently ethnology. 

 in a spondee. The following lines are the opening verses of 

 one of these ballads translated from a German version of the 

 Badaga by Mr. Metz, who has made a large collection of similar 

 ballads ; the metre of the original is preserved as nearly as 

 possible. 



Bala Sevana. 



Once in the village of Hanniamatinu, 

 Near t5 the fortress of Kolgga Kambe, 

 Lived there a youth named Bala Sevana, 

 Also his brother, B61a-MaJa. 

 Like were they to one another, 

 E'en as the spreading horns of a buffalo. 

 Nineteen men had Bela-Mada, 

 Nineteen ploughed the land for Sevana. 

 Once in the field of the gravid slope they 

 Met by the corner of the sacred seal- stone ; 

 First to the Circar made they obeisance, 

 Then they made a salaam to the temple, 

 Folding their hands to the moon above them. 

 Deep in the earth they scooped a hollow, 

 Then they fetched an armful of hillus,' 

 Played with a golden ball and with a 

 Bat of silver the game of Hillata. 

 Lo ! the daughter of Yerugatta, 

 The twice fallen, Yerade-blui, 

 Took unto her eighteen maidens. 



There stood she upon the green slope, 

 'Neath the richly laden Khavilu ; ^ 

 There did she unbind her tresses, 

 Thick were they as the churn-stick, mlattu. 



Meanwhile skilful Bdla Sevana 

 Caught the hillus of Bela-Mada ; 

 Mada caught not those of Sevana. 



Then said Yerugatta's daughter, 



The twice fallen, Yerade-blui, 



" Has not Bela in Temale, 



Li the grazing ground of Mdda, 



To the brim milked eighteen pailsful ? 



" Then his loins with pure white kerchief 

 Girt he not and made the butter, 



^ Hillus. Pieces of wood, the projectiles in the game. 

 * A shrab which beai'S edible berries. 



and 



