The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
the only difference in the ceremony being the invocation of the Bodo
gods instead of the Dhimál ones.
"The _great festivals_ of the year are three or four. The first is
held in December-January, when the cotton crop is ready. It is called
Shúrkhar by the Bodo, Haréjata by the Dhimáls. The second is held in
February-March. It is named Wágalénó by the Bodo, who alone observe
it. The Bodo name for the third, which is celebrated in July-August,
when the rice comes into ear, is Phúlthépno. The Dhimáls call it Gávi
púja. The fourth great festival is held in October, and is named Ai
húnó by the Bodo--Pochima páká by the Dhimáls. The first three of these
festivals are consecrated to the elemental gods and to the interests of
agriculture. They are celebrated abroad, not at home (generally on the
banks of a river), whence attendance on them is called Hagrou húdong
or madai húdong, "going forth to worship" in contradistinction to the
style of the fourth great festival, which is devoted to the household
gods and is celebrated at home. The Wágalénó, or bamboo festival of
the Bodo, I witnessed in the spring of this year, and will describe it
as a sample of the whole. Proceeding from Siligori to Pankhabárí with
Dr. Campbell, we came upon a party of Bodo in the bed of the river,
within the Saul forest, or rather, were drawn off the road by the noise
they made. It was a sort of chorus of a few syllables, solemnly and
musically incanted, which, on reaching the spot was found to be uttered
by thirteen Bodo men, who were drawn up in a circle facing inwards, and
each carrying a lofty bamboo pole decked with several tiers of wearing
apparel and crowned with a Chour or yak's tail. Within the circle were
three men, one of whom with an instrument like this [Illustration: (
| | )] in his hands danced to the music, waving his weapon downwards
on one side and so over the head, and then downwards on the other side
and again over the head. He moved round the margin of the circle in
the centre of which stood two others, one a Déóshi or priest, and the
other an attendant or servitor called Phantwál. The priest, clothed in
red cotton but not tonsured or otherwise distinguished from the rest
of the party, muttered an invocation, whereof the burden or chorus was
taken up by the thirteen forming the ring above noticed. The servitor
had a water-pot in one hand and a brush in the other, and from time to
time, as the rite proceeded, this person moved out of the circle to
sprinkle with the holy water another actor in this strange ceremony
and a principal one too. This is the Déódá, or the possessed, who
when filled with the god answers by inspiration to the questions of
the priests as to the prospects of the coming season. When we first
discerned him, he was sitting on the ground panting, and rolling his
eyes so significantly that I at once conjectured his function. Shortly
afterwards, the rite still proceeding, the Déódá got up, entered the
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