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



middle of the bazar, where may be seen stretched out in the road, a 

 preposterous and indecent figure of a man, made of a few sticks and old 

 rags. This Indian Priapus, much the same probably, as the "horrors" 

 which Asa set up in the grove (2 Chron. xv. 16,) is here called Nathoo 

 Ram, and is equally common in Rajasthan (Tod) and in the Deccan, 

 (Bombay Trans, vol. i. 240.) Nathoo Ram we were told was a bunian, 

 a notorious gallant, whom a Rajpoot finding too intimate with his wife, 

 killed during the Huli. This figure forming the standing joke of 

 the season, food is daily presented to it with ludicrous gravity ; 

 it is plentifully smeared with abeer, and all sorts of absurd antics are 

 played around it ; nor can any one pass the spot where it lies without a 

 volley of jokes being discharged at him, unless he has the tact to avert 

 the storm, by paying his devotions with jest and ribaldry, to this exact re- 

 presentative of the Syrian neuro-spasta. 



Numerous games are also played during the Huli of a more quiet 

 character, which vary of course in every country. The most common 

 one is well known : men range themselves in two circles facing differ- 

 ent ways, each person, armed with a stick, goes dancing round, to 

 the tune generally of a fife, and strikes the stick of every one who 

 comes opposite to him. This is the characteristic dance of the Hindus 

 in Afghanistan, and more particularly in Seestan. 



A second one, common here, particularly among the Aheers, is as 

 follows : — 



The men assemble in one line, the women in another, all armed with 

 sticks, which the former use only as shields. The boys look on, for 

 these games are played chiefly by grown up people, " senes his pueros," 

 a battle is mimicked. The women raising a sort of Pcean, strike their 

 sticks against those of their shouting adversaries, who allow themselves 

 to be slowly driven back ; when breathless, a few minutes truce is allow- 

 ed, till some one calls out, the " succours are at hand, the suwars have 

 arrived," and the like ; and they again set to. The spectators reward 

 the actors with a trifle. 



In the evenings the simple rustics enjoy, with undisguised delight, 

 mimes and farces of the rudest description, and which to a townsman 

 would appear insufferably dull and disgusting, for the more amusing 

 plays of the Mahrattas, of which Malcolm and Grant Duff make mention, 

 are rarely acted. Of course the quality, and longer or shorter continu- 

 ance, of the nautches depend on the means and will of the givers, but 

 many of the richer zemindars commence them from the 11th of Poos 

 Seedi, and keep them up to the 5th of Cheyt. According to the 





