Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 635

MISGUIDED UNCLEANNESS
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and the wife collect with their hands a certain quantity
of ordure and form it into a small pyramid, which they are
careful to mark with a sign that will enable them to recog-
nize it.
Then they go to the neighbouring tank and mix
in the hollow of their hands the filth which has soiled their
fingers.
(But I will spare my readers the rest.) After
having performed their ablutions they retire. Two or three
days afterwards they visit their pyramid, and, still using
their hands, turn the filthy mass over and over and examine
it as carefully and as seriously as the Roman augurs scruti-
nized the entrails of sacrificed animals, in order to see if
any insects have been engendered in it. In this case it
would be a very good omen, showing that the woman would
soon be pregnant. But if, after careful search, not even
the smallest insect is visible, the poor couple, sad and
discouraged, return home in the full conviction that the
expenses they have been put to and the pains they have
taken have been of no avail l
At Mogur, another village situated a short distance from
the former (Nanjangud), there is a small temple dedicated
to Tipamma, a female divinity, in whose honour a great
festival is celebrated every year.
The goddess, placed in
a beautifully ornamented palanquin, is carried in proces-
sion through the streets.
In front of her there is another
divinity, a male.
These two idols, which are entirely
nude, are placed in immodest postures, and by help of
a piece of mechanism a disgusting movement is imparted
to them as long as the procession continues.
This disgust-
ing spectacle, which is worthy of the depraved persons who
look upon it, excites transports of mirth, manifested by
.
shouts and bursts of laughter. Nor is this all. A Pariah,
who has made a special study of all the obscene and filthy
expressions to be found in the Hindu language, is chosen
the goddess Tipamma is then evoked and takes up her
abode in his person. Then any one who wishes to hear
foul expressions stands before the man, and he is certain
;
As it is supposed to be Tipamma who
speaks through the mouth of the Pariah, the devotees, far
from being offended with him, are quite pleased with the
to be satisfied.
1
We
believe that
no such disgusting practice
exists
nowadays.
Ed.