Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/45

kingdom for good and ever. The Pallis sought refuge and protection of the goddess Kamakshi Amman, whose pity was touched by their sad plight, and who came to their aid. She appeared to one of the elders of the caste in a dream, and revealed to him that there was a staunch devotee of hers — a member of their caste — who alone could remove the spells wrought by the Seniyars, and that this man, Ramasawmy Naikan, was Prime Minister in the service of the Kodagu (Coorg) Rāja. The desperate plight they were in induced the Pallis to send a powerful deputation to the Rāja, and to beg of him to lend them the services of Ramasawmy Naik, in order to save them from the catastrophe which was imminent. The Rāja was kind enough to comply. The Naik arrived, and, by virtue of his clairvoyant powers, took in the situation at a glance. He found myriads of imps and uncanny beings around each of the car-wheels, who gripped them as by a vice, and pulled them back with their sinewy legs and hands every time an attempt was made to drag them forwards. Ramasawmy Naik by no means liked the look of things, for he found that he had all his work cut out for him to keep these little devils from doing him bodily harm, let alone any attempt to caste them off by spells. He saw that more than common powers were needed to face the situation, and prayed to Kamakshi Amman to disclose a way of overcoming the enemy. After long fasting and prayers, he slept a night in the temple of Kamakshi Amman, in the hope that a revelation might come to him in his slumber. While he slept, Kamakshi Amman appeared, and declared to him that the only way of overcoming the foe was for the Pallis to render a propitiatory sacrifice, but of a most revolting kind, namely, to offer up as a victim a woman pregnant with her first