48 
E. T. Atkinson— Notes on the history 
[No, 1 , 
around its neck, is worshipped. The headman of the village then lays a 
talwar across its neck and the beast is let loose, when all proceed to chase 
it and pelt it with stones and hack it with knives until it dies. This 
custom especially prevails in villages where the form Mahisha-mardani is 
worshipped, ‘ she who slew the buffalo-demon Mahisha.’ A similar cus¬ 
tom, however, called dlmrancji obtains in the Bhotiya parganahs of 
Kumaon where there is no trace of the buffalo-legend. There, when a 
man dies, his relatives assemble at the end of the year in which the death 
occurred and the nearest male relative dances naked with a drawn, sword 
to the music of a drum, in which he is assisted by others for a whole day 
and night. The following day a buffalo is brought and made intoxicated 
with bhang and spirits and beaten with stones, sticks and weapons until it 
dies. It is probable that this custom of slaying the buffalo is an old one 
unconnected with any Brahmanical deity. A story fabricated not very 
long ago in connection with the Nanda temple at Almora is both amu¬ 
sing and instructive as to the growth of these legends. My informant 
tells how the worship of ISTanda at Almora had been kept up ever since 
it was established there by Kalyan Chand, but that when the British 
took possession of Kumaon, the revenue-free villages attached to the tem¬ 
ple were sequestrated by Mr. Traill.* Three years afterwards (1818) 
Mr. Traill was on a visit to the Bhotiya valley of Juhar, and whilst pass¬ 
ing by Kanda-kot, where Kanda Devi is supposed to hold her court, was 
struck blind by the dazzling colour of the snow. The people all told him 
that unless the worship of the goddess were restored his temporary 
snow-blindness would remain for ever, and on his promising to this effect, 
his eyes were opened and healed. In Almora, there is this peculiarity 
in the worship of Kanda, that two images are made of the stock of the 
plantain tree and on the morrow of the festival, these are thrown or, as 
the people say, sent to sleep on a waste space below the fort of Lalmandi 
(Fort Moira) and thus disposed of. 
JDurhdshtami. —A ceremony known as the Burhashtami sometimes 
takes place on the Nanddshtami and sometimes on the Janmashtami or 
other holy eighth of this month. On this day women make a necklace of 
dub grass which they place around their neck and after ablution and worship 
give it with the smikat/pa or invocation as a present to Brahmans. They 
then wear instead a necklace of silk or fine thread according to their means. 
They also put on their left arms a bracelet of thread with seven knots 
known as dor. Men wear a similar bracelet of fourteen knots on their riMit 
to 
arms which is called ananta, as they first wear it on the ananta cJiatur- 
* On tlie British conquest in 1815, all claims to hold land free of revenue were 
examined and in many cases, owing to the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory evidence 
in support of the claim, considerable dela}^ arose in issuing orders. 
