The Holi: a Veinial Festival of the Hindus. 75
sacrificial buffaloes is taken by men wearing buffalo horns and their bodies covered with black cloth.^'^ In the Chanda District of the Central Provinces, at the Holi, two fires are lighted, and the festival is supposed to symbolize the death of Kamadeva and the rejoicings at his rebirth.*^ The Mannewars, a tribe allied to the Gonds, perform a rite at the Holi which explains the lighting of the double fire. They make two human figures intended to represent Kama, god of love, and Rati, his wife. The male figure is thrown into the fire with a live chicken or an egg. This, it is suggested, represents a human sacrifice, but this interpreta- tion is, as we shall see, doubtful. ^^ In Bengal, after the flinging of the coloured water, "a bonfire is made on a spot previously prepared, and a sort of Guy Fawkes-like effigy, term.ed Holika, made of bamboo laths and straw, is formally carried to it and committed to the flames. In villages and small towns the bonfire is public, and is made outside the houses. The figure is conveyed to the spot by Brahmans or Vaishnavas, in regular procession, attended by musicians and singers. Upon their arrival at the spot, the image is placed in the centre of the pile, and the ofiiciating Brahman, having circumambulated it seven times, sets it on fire." ^^ A few years ago, at the Ramgarh Hill in the Native State of Sirguja, south of Mirzapur, a record of a drama performed at the Holi festival, with a cave theatre in which it was acted, was discovered.'^" We may suspect a survival of similar per- formances in the Holi observances now carried out in the Poona District, where boys dressed as dancing-girls take the place of women at the Holi festival, and perform a
- E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909), vol. iv., p. 14
ct seq.
®^ Chanda Gazetteer (1909), vol. i., p. 91.
^^ Ethnographic Survey, Central Provinces (1911), Part v., p. 66.
- ^ H. H. Wilson, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 225.
""^ Archaeological Report, India {igo^-^), p. 12;^ et seq.
