84 



ANGAM CHARMS. 



man) had never been accustomed; combined with the heat, noise, 

 excitement, and their own consciousness of being for the time the 

 " observed of all observers." Hysterics or any sudden sickness on 

 such occasions is always attributed to an Angam caused by some 

 unfriendly person among the company. The Cattadiya, who often 

 forms one of the company to be ready on such an emergency to 

 render his services, does his part on such an occasion, and of course 

 the patient generally recovers under his management, as much to 

 the glory and honour of the profession as to his own personal bene- 

 fit. I recollect several instances of this kind, which have occurred 

 in my own presence, among others, the following: — 



About 19 years ago, when I was a lad of 15, I was on my way 

 to school with three or four school fellows, when we heard the 

 usual accompaniment of a Wedding Procession, viz., the sound of 

 drums and of brass cymbals, mingled with the loud voices of three 

 or four singing men all chanting together in a sort of chorus. We 

 all stopped to see the procession, which was slowly moving on 

 towards us at some distance in our rear; and as their way lay in 

 the same direction and on the same road as ours, we gladly kept 

 them company, keeping as near as possible to the tom-tom players 

 and the dancing boys, who interested us much more than anybody 

 else in the procession, the bride and bridegroom included. Imme- 

 diately behind us were some 10 or 15 people, and next to them 

 came the bridegroom. He was dressed, as is usual on such an 

 occasion, in the style of a Modliar, and was attended on his right 

 and left by his two "friends," men nearly of the same stature and 

 dressed in the same style as* himself. Then came some more 

 people, and behind them the bride and another woman in a bullock 

 hackery. Scarcely ten minutes had elapsed from the time we 

 joined them, when we heard the cry apoyi (alas), the usual expres- 

 sion of distress. I turned round, and saw the bridegroom with 

 closed eyes and drops of perspiration pouring down his face in the 



* Instead of men of the same height as the bridegroom sometimes two little 

 boys are substituted, which custom however prevails only in and near the 

 larger towns. 



