312 On the Huli in Malwa. [No. 99. 



water, the poojari proceeds to hallow it, with certain holy mutterings 

 and a few grains of rice, a little betel, and huldi ; and then fixes in the 

 centre, in a small hole dug for the purpose, a branch of Semul (cotton 

 tree) or more usually, a plant of Renda (the Castor) round which he 

 ranges five cakes of chinna. (4) This is called Huli ka har (or dunda 

 dhurna,) and the spot " the Huli," and for the whole ensuing month 

 nothing is thought of among the boys, but how to steal wood, grass, 

 cakes of cow dung, &c. to heap around it. The Huli however is played 

 languidly till the 8th Sudi of Phalgun, the Hul Ashtuk or Phag, from 

 which day till the full moon, business is dropped, and as at the Satur- 

 nalia, there is no betrothing, or marrying, no new work should be under- 

 taken, debtors are not harassed, (5) schools are closed, &c. But it is from 

 the 11th, the Amarduki, that they begin the sports in earnest. The 

 boys have by this time grown more bold, and rove about in all direc- 

 tions to feed Huli Mata. In the conduct of these foraging parties 

 they sometime*;, and ought always, to mimic the bustle and preparation 

 of an alarmed camp, as enjoined in the Brimha Vaidertuk ; " as if you 

 were rushing to get your weapons," says another Puran (6). One makes 

 off with a door, another runs away with a bed, and some old woman 

 perhaps, who has gossipped too long at the well, finds on her return 

 home, half her hut unthatched. To make the matter worse, nothing 

 that has actually reached the Huli, can be taken back ; though if the 

 thieves have been disturbed at their work, and drop their prey, it is 

 then redeemed by the owner. Sometimes indeed a sulky person will 

 insist on taking his property from the very pile, but the boys so tor- 

 ment him with abuse and raillery, shouting in his ear the dreadful and 

 infallible penalties of such sacrilege, the death of the first-born, &c, 

 that shame, or fear, generally induces him to withdraw his claims, and 

 to join, with as good a grace as he can, in the general grin. 



At last the longed-for night, the full of the moon, has arrived. — For 

 some days previous, the women have been busy making little cups of 

 cow-dung, called bullas, in the centre of which a hole is bored, so 

 that several may be strung together into a necklace. Each head of 

 a family, bearing in his hand, (like some Greek suppliant with his ever- 



4. The local name for cakes of cow-dung, more commonly called kunda, ussara, 

 or gobur. 



5. In the day similarly kept sacred during the Jewish Huli, the Passover, money 

 matters might be attended to ; — a characteristic distinction. 



6. From the clashing of the sticks together on this occasion, and the sound of 

 kil kil made by it, some derive the name of Holica, others from Hodui to go, the d 

 and 1 being changeable. 





