Vol. I, No. 8.] The People of Mungeli Tahsil. 193 
EN S| 
I am told that this mushroom grows over the spot where a cow has 
given birth to its young. It is an invariable practice for the herds- 
men or the ploughmen when they find this mushroom to stick it 
in the cord round the waist or to put it behind the ear. It seems 
to serve no practical purpose, and yet people carry it around like a 
charm. This mushroom is tough and leathery and appears to be 
quite durable. 
73. The Festival of Stults—During the latter half of the Hindu 
month of Sravan is held, what I have termed, the festival of stilts 
because of the practice amongst the boys and sometimes the young 
men of making stilts and playing with them for 15 days. Just as 
soon as the light half of Sravan comes around, these stilts will be 
seen. The stilts are made by tieing small pieces of bamboo about 
a foot in length to a long bamboo six feet long, and the foot is placed 
not across the step of the stilt, as is usually done by English school- 
boys, but the foot is placed lengthways on the step of the stilt, so 
that the long bamboo is held by the toes of the foot. The stilts are 
not nailed in any part but are tied with twine ; and when the twine 
is wet it makes a creaking noise rubbing against the bamboo, and 
this noise made at every step of course adds immensely to the enjoy- 
ment of the youngsters. When the fifteen days are over, at the Pora 
festival, the children make some specially dainty cakes, and taking 
their stilts they all go down ina body to the river or tank. Here the 
stilts are all stacked together like rifles in a guard-room. Before 
this stack of stilts the children offer hom (incense), sometimes 
merely burning dried cow-dung Then they untie the foot-pieces 
from the stilts, and one foot-piece is thrown into the river and the 
other is either buried in the sand by striking it upright or it is 
carried to the home and struck in the ground in front of the door- 
way. 
4 The long pieces of bamboo are also taken home and put in the 
root to be kept tillthe next season. After this festival of stilts, the. 
Kumhars make earthen buliocks, paint them in gay colours and 
take them round for sale. They also make earthen grinding mills 
and small vessels to amuse the girls. This time of the year 
appears to be specially the time of amusement for the little ones. 
74. The Fisherman’s Net.—During the Dasherah festival a 
fishermaii goes around with his net and he throws this on to the 
child of any prominent person. This appears to be a sign of 
good-luck or prosperity, for the parents of the child reward 
the fisherman with gram or money. A fisherman once tried to 
throw his net on my little girl; she was greatly alarmed and 
would not allow it to be done. The man thought it would be 
unfortunate to be thus hindered; so he placed his net over me. 
It is a question whether he was more concerned for his own 
interests or mine. 
75, Snake-Lore and Snake-Charmers.—The snake-charmers of 
the district are called Gouriyas. They appear to be few in number 
and I do not find them named in the Census Report. They reside 
in a few villages of this Tahsil, engage in agriculture during the 
rains, and in the dry months they wander away to great distances 
