Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism 39 



man then recovers from his pretended swoon, and the procession 

 goes forward.* 



After they have arrived at the boundary of the village the 

 bloody rice is left as an offering, and the man who carried it 

 divests himself of his bloody trappings. Often he swoons, or 

 appears to do so, and is carried to the temple of the village god- 

 dess, where water is poured over him to revive him. Sometimes 

 the procession, after arriving at the boundary, continues around 

 the village, the bloody rice being scattered to keep out the Saktis. 



A variation of this ceremony as reported by Bishop White- 

 head,^ consists in carrying the buffalo head around the village in 

 order to draw a line over which no evil spirit may pass. Any 

 house which has not contributed to the expenses of the worship 

 will be omitted from this protection.^ 



At times individual Saktis are worshiped, the gruesome cere- 

 monies always having the one object of mollifying the anger of 

 the Sakti. Among these Saktis, Kati Ankamma is one of con- 

 siderable importance. She is the Sakti of the place where the 

 dead are buried or burned, and is feared accordingly. She is 

 said to live on corpses and to kill young children. She also sets 

 fire to houses, and like all other Indian demons, delights in killing 

 cattle. 



The worship is by one household, or at times by two or three 

 households in union. It takes place when there has been some 

 unusual trouble which may be attributed to Kati Ankamma. It 

 appears that the household gods are jealous of this worship of 



* See the account given by Bishop Whitehead, Madras Government 

 Museum Bulletin, V, no. 3, p. 131, for some variations. Bishop Whitehead 

 thinks that the man carrying the bloody offering is supposed to be possessed 

 by the spirit of the village goddess. I have been led to believe rather 

 that he is simply carrying the offering to the Saktis, and that he is thus ter- 

 ribly arrayed so that the Saktis will fear to harm him or those with him. 

 See page 125 for a further discussion of this point. 



5 Madras Government Museum, Bulletin, V, no. 3, p. 139. 



^ I have seen a farmer going about his field carrying bloody rice, which 

 he scattered as he walked. This too was to keep the demons from his 

 ripening crop. His idea seemed to be that they would be satisfied with 

 the bloody offering when they reached the boundary of his field and so 

 would not injure his grain. 



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