M UN DA HI POETRY, MUSIC AND DANCES. 99- 



pearly teeth, the beads of a necklace, tiny flowers growing in bunches : mondol-mondol 

 used of a rich, sweet scent : binga-banga of objects striped in a regular manner. 



There is hardly any natural phenomenon producing distinctly pleasing or charm- 

 ing, delightful or disagreeable, painful or distressing, impressions which has not its 

 own corresponding jingle. Whereas binga-banga is used of objects which are pleasing 

 on account of their being striped regularly in variegated colour, bangad-bungud is 

 reserved for the description of the striped tiger. It seems to convey something of 

 the terror that beast inspires : ari-ari describes that feeling of despondency or des- 

 pair which arises either from repeated failure or in the presence of insurmountable 

 difficulties in the struggle for life. 



Regarding the function and position in the sentence of these jingles, the follow- 

 ing may be taken as general rules : 



(ist.) They are nearly always used predicatively, i.e., as Intransitive predicates, 

 very seldom as qualifying appositions to a noun. 



(2nd.) When used as appositions qualifying a noun, they stand after the noun. 

 This is a remarkable deviation from the otherwise invariable law, according to which 

 every Mundari adjective must precede the noun it qualifies. Marang or a' : a large 

 house ; chom chom horo : a taciturn individual. The inversion is allowed only in 

 poetry. Jingles thus following a noun are in reality equivalent to a qualifying relative 

 clause, or to an adjectival phrase introduced by so. 



Dandom ora' chome chome, dandom ora' lingitana. 



The umbrella house, which is so snug and cosy , or, the umbrella house, so snug and 

 cosy, the umbrella house is leaking. 



(3rd.) As predicates they generally take as affix the linkword a, which is the verbal- 

 izing factor for any Mundari word. 



Ale disumdona bhuina Bindi kapi jilib-jilib-a. 



In our country, my darling daughter Bindi, the battle-axe is flashing, i.e., war is 

 raging. 



(4th.) However, in poetry mere juxtaposition of subject and predicate is often met 

 with, e.g. 



Chirpingkodoko bijir-balang. 



Aeraingkodako bian-boeon 



My {darling) chirpis (a tiny silvery fish) (are) shimmering (because of their rapid 



movements) . 

 My (darling) aeras (a small shining fish) (are) moving in graceful curves. 



The Mundas are quick in perceiving natural defects as well as acquired short- 

 comings. They have thus coined quite a number of derisive jingles. These are often 

 repeated twice : 



Kandang-kundung or kandang-kundang-kandang-kundung is used to describe the 



