io8 Wilder Theodore Elmore 



The boy's father soon joined her, and for three days they waited 

 beside the ant-hill. At the end of that time Narayanaswami 

 came out covered with dirt, and with his hands full of cobra 

 snakes as proof that he had been to the lower world. 



The boy now went to the village and walked about the streets, 

 eating nothing, and not going home. He announced that if any- 

 one were bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion, he should put 

 a stone on his head and coming to the ant-hill call, " Narayana- 

 swami ! " Those who did this would be cured. After making 

 this announcement he returned to the ant-hill and disappeared in 

 it, never again to come out. Some time later children in the vil- 

 lage began to be possessed with evil spirits, and the diviner an- 

 nounced that it was Narayanaswami who was troubling them. 

 The people then built him a. temple and his worship began. 



From what other information can be gleaned, it seems probable 

 that the boy died in some uncanny way in the forest. He may have 

 been bitten by a snake from the ant-hill. In the worship there 

 are a few customs connected with the village deities. One sheep 

 only is offered, and the rest of the ceremonies are Hindu in char- 

 acter. All castes worship, from the highest to the lowest. The 

 deity is a male, so their worship is not Sakti worship. The con- 

 nection with the serpents is Hindu.^ It seems to be a fairly even 

 mixture of Dravidian and Hindu cult and legend. 



Another important instance of the tendency to originate Hindu 

 gods after the fashion of village deities is found in the case of 

 Kotappa Konda Swami near Narsaravupett in the Guntur Dis- 

 trict.* The legend runs that about one hundred years ago a man 

 named Yellamanda Kotiah of the Linga Bulija division of the Sudra 

 caste, ruined the wife of a shepherd when she was herding cattle 

 on the hill. The deed became known to her husband, and he de- 

 termined to seek revenge. The next day he went himself to herd 

 the cattle, and when Kotiah came, expecting to meet the woman 



3 Fergus son (Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 58) says that serpent wor- 

 ship is not Dravidian. See also Manual of Administration of the Madras 

 Presidency, I, p. 72. 



* For the facts relating to this god I am indebted to W. E. Boggs of 

 Sattenapalle, Guntur District. 



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