Abstract
FESTIVALS or THE Hos or KOLHAN.—Mr. D. N. Majumdar describes in the Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, N.S., vol. 23, No. 3, the seven important worship festivals of the Hos which take place at different seasons of the year. It is noteworthy that in certain feudatory states in Orissa, where the Hos live in close association with the Oriya-speaking peoples, while the latter take part in the festivals of the Hos, they are not allowed to take part in their dances, when men and women mingle freely, as intermarriage is not allowed. The festivals are not held at fixed dates, but depend upon economic conditions. When the granaries are full and the Hos are free from other engagements, the priest fixes a day for a festival, each village deciding for itself, so that any given celebration may extend over as much as two months, when the whole area of Kolhan is taken into account. The principal festival is the Maghe, which is held in January and February. Its meaning is obscure, but it seems to be connected with fertility. All villagers, even if working in remote districts, must return to take part. It entails five days of ritual observances, with pujas and sacrifices to the village deity. On the first day the sacrifice is con nected with the cattle, on the second rice-beer is offered by the priest and his wife. The third day is purificatory, in preparation for the marriage festival of the fourth day, which is the main function of the celebration. On this day the priest is escorted to take a ceremonial bath. He then sacrifices a cock and hen. A second hen, which is offered to the god, is not sacri ficed by the priest, but is stoned to death by the villagers. In the dance which follows obscene songs are sung and obscene practices observed for the pur pose of increasing the procreative power of the tribe. On the fifth day the expulsion of spirits takes place, when the villagers arm themselves with sticks, four or five feet long, and hunt the spirits throughout the village with invocations which are unintelligible even to themselves.
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Research Items. Nature 123, 582–584 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123582a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123582a0