1 The rites of Mahdsn, 315
2 watch the proceedings from a distance, for if they ventured near a curse
3 would fall upon them. The rites completed, the images and vessels are
4 conveyed in similar fashion to the temple and are placed in par da except
5 one small image which is set upon the ear . and left all day within the
6 courtyard where the subsequent, ceremonies occur. At night time it
7 too is put inside the shrine safe from the hands of sacrilegious, revellers.
8 A high straight pole, cut usually from the blue pine tree, is planted
9 firmly in the ground and bears a flag in honour of the deity. Another
10 pole, shorter and thicker, cut off at the junction of many branohes is
11 also driven in the earth. The forking branches are lopped at a distance
12 of several feet from the parent stem whilst in between them rough slabs
13 of slate are placed so that the whole forms an effective brazier. At the
14 approach of nightfall a ram and goat provided by the general communi¬
15 ty are sacrificed, the first beside the brazier, whilst the latter is led in¬
16 side the shrine, for a goat is deemed a nobler offering than a ram. . "But
17 the victim is not actually despatched before the altar, for the family of
18 Mah&su has a strong aversion to the sight of blood, so after the god has
19 signified acceptance of the offering through the trembling of the beast
20 it is led outside again and slaughtered in the courtyard. When darkness
21 falls the worshippers of either sex, with lighted torches in their hands,
22 dance for some little time around the brazier on which they later fling
23 the blazing faggots. All through the night the fire is fed by branches
24 of the pine tree which flash the flaming message of Mah Isa's fame
25 throughout the chain of villages which own his sway across the valleys
26 and along the hills, whilst the men and women spend the night in
27 merrymaking, joining together in their rustic dances and time-honoured
28 songs. At intervals, as the unceasing rhythmic dance circles around the
29 fire, a villager drops from the group and manifests the well-known signs
30 of supernatural possession. Then he must make an offering of a sweet¬
31 ened cake of wheaten flour, with a little butter to the god's wazir or, if
32 well-to-do, must sacrifice a goat or ram. Sometimes. a votary, snatching a
33 burning torch from the fire, clasps it tightly to his breast, but. if his
34 hands are injured in the process, he is proved a low. impostor and the
35 slighted god exacts a fine of several annas and a kid. Also if many
36 villagers become inspired there is a murmur that divine possession is
37 growing cheap, implying that the would-be incarnations of the deity are
38 simulating ecstatic frenzy. The general riot is heightened by a plentiful
39 supply of home-brewed spirits, but the women do not drink nor is
40 debauchery looked upon with favour. No one who tastes intoxicating
41 liquor is allowed within the temple, and the priests who abstain them*
42 selves keep watch upon the portal. But when the revelry is at its zenith
43 it sometimes happens that, despite their care, the drunken worshippers
44 cluster around the porch and some fall helplessly across the threshold.
45 Then the god inflicts upon the culprits the penalties imposed on mere
46 pretenders to divine afflatus. At the break of dawn such of the merry¬
47 makers as are well enough to eat enjoy a common feast for which each
48 house provides a pound of wheaten flour and half a pound of oil. This
49 ends the ceremonies and Mah&su is left in quiet for another year to-
50 prosecute his silent schemes by which he hopes to forge a few more
51 links in the ever-lengthening chain that binds his worshippers in bonds
52 of superstitious dread.