24 Wilber Theodore Elmore 



as the tumult grows louder, and the people leap and dance as if 

 possessed by demons. 



On the fourth day, in memory of Papanooka, whose story will 

 be told later,^* a man disguised as a woman carries a paper balloon 

 in procession on the end of a long pole. Above the balloon is a pot 

 and above that a drinking cup, while the royal staff and snake hood 

 are carried behind accompanied by drumming and shouting.^^ 



On the last day the cruel features of the worship take place. 

 The village carpenter prepares a rude cart on which are set stakes 

 sharply pointed at the upper end. The usual number of stakes 

 is nine. On these are impaled alive a goat, a pig, a lamb, a chicken, 

 and other small animals. Then the story-teller drinks the blood of 

 a sheep, sometimes severing the jugular vein with his teeth, and 

 disguised as a woman mounts to the top of the cart. Here sitting 

 on a board prepared for him, he rides to Ankamma's temple in the 

 midst of the suffering animals. The cart is drawn with great 

 tumult by the Madigas and Malas, while the crowd follows with 

 beating of drums and great excitement. After they have arrived 

 at the temple a live sheep is impaled on a stake set for that purpose 

 in the ground in front of the temple.^* All of these animals of 

 course die in their agonies. 



The usual explanation of the impaling of the animals is that 

 Ankamma enters the man who is disguised as a woman, and is 

 propitiated by this suffering and shedding of blood. After these 

 horrible ceremonies are over, food is poured out before the 



1* See page 94. 



15 The story tellers in the worship of Ankamma are called pambala 

 vandlu. They are Malas. The Madiga asadis — who are the story-tellers 

 for Poleramma and the most of these gods — would not be allowed to tell 

 the story of Ankamma. 



18 Oppert, Original Inhabitants of India, 479, tells of another cruel 

 practice in the worship of Mariamman, when live chickens are thrown 

 among the crowd from the temple. The people catch them and tear them 

 to pieces as they fall. It is claimed that the impaling ceremony is un- 

 common now, and that the legs of the sheep are tied together and simply 

 hooked over the impaling stake. There is much reason to believe, how- 

 ever, that the impaling still goes on, especially in out of the way places, 



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