1834.] 



History of the Ramoossies. 



285 



a pound of flower, ground from the necessary quantity of wheat, 

 jowary, and termerie, from which a few cakes of bread are prepared, 

 by the same women. 



They then procure from a field, five ears of jowary, round which 

 they tie a thread and then cover the bunch (joombra) with some 

 black earth. It is afterwards placed in an upright position, near 

 their household gods, and as it is daily sprinkled with water, it 

 soon vegetates most luxuriantly. 



During the time the boy resides in his father's house, after he has 

 undergone the Hullud ceremony, and, until he quits for the purpose 

 of celebrating his marriage, he is invited successively by all his ref- 

 lations, and persons of his caste, and entertained by them. This in 

 fact, to him, is a period of constant feasting ; he is attended by 

 music, and his sister, if she is a young girl, or child, accompanies 

 him. Should he be straitened for time, owing to the near ap- 

 proach of the nuptial day, he will partake of entertainments at the 

 houses of four or five of his friends in one day. The feast consists 

 of the most dainty dishes their means will admit of providing. The 

 boy undergoes ablution, and has a little Hullud rubbed on him, in 

 the house of each person, before he sits down to the feast prepared 

 for him. 



A temporary shed is now constructed in front of the house ; it is 

 formed of a few posts, and some rafters thrown across them, over 

 which a suflScient quantity of green branches of the mangoe tree, 

 oombur or jambool, are spread to afford defence from the weather. 



The ceremony of worshipping their household gods is now per- 

 formed in the mandwah. Four soopary (nuts) are taken to repre- 

 sent their deities, Khundoba, Bhyrobah, Bhugwuntty, (Bhoany,) 

 and Nonllaie. The nuts are consecrated by casting some bhundar 

 and koonkoo over them, and at this time a sheep is sacrificed* in 

 front of the mandwah, to propitiate matters. Two or four are kill- 

 ed, or as many more as the circumstances of the family will admit 

 of, or, according to the number of guests they wish to invite to the 

 evening banquet. During the day, the gooroo, or attendant of the 

 village temple, is required to procure a small branch with leaves on 

 it, of each of the following five trees if the 1st mangoe, 2d oombur, 

 3d jambool, 4th rooie, and the 5th soundur or shemy, also a few 

 stalks of the grass called, sooreath, or rossy, which he takes to 



* No sheep are killed by the Shoodurs during this ceremony, 

 t 1st Magnifera Indica, 2d Ficus Glomerata, 3d Calypinanthes, Carvo- 

 philli folio, 4th Asclepias Giganticus, 5th Mimosa Sunia, tith Andropugon 

 ^chananthus. 



