charmers do not seem entitled to the distinctive appellation of Abraiaman, or
Brahmans, though they may have been so in former days. At the diamond-mines
of the Northern Circars Brahmans are employed in the similar task of
propitiating the tutelary genii. The snake-charmers are called in Tamul Kadal-
kalti, “Sea-binders,” and in Hindustani, Haibanda, or “Shark-binders.” At Aripo
they belong to one family, supposed to enjoy monopoly of the charm. The chief
operator is (or was, not many years ago) paid by Government, and he also
received two oysters from each boat daily during the fishery. Turnoub, on his
visit, found the incumbent of the office to be a Roman Catholic Christian, but
that did not seem to affect the exercise or the validity of his practices. It is
remarkable that when Turnoub wrote, not more than one authenticated accident
from sharks had taken place, during the whole period of the British occupation.
Among the shepherds, or hillmen, in the neighbourhood of Rampore (or “City of
Rama,”)—the Paharis, as they are called,—a curious custom lingers, which
resembles the strange old Highland ceremony of the sunwise turn, or Deisul,
round any particular object, partly for luck, partly as a survival of the sun-
worship of the men of old. Sometimes the villagers gather their flocks into one
great herd, and, walking at the head, lead them slowly round the village,
following the solar course. Gradually they quicken their pace to a run, and in this
fashion perambulate the village thrice or even oftener.
This sunwise turn is practised in other cases, as in sickness or accident. Sheep
and goats are solemnly paraded round the sufferer; after which they lose their
heads. If the sufferer be wealthy, the number so sacrificed to the demons is often
considerable. But the Paharis very firmly hold that though the lesser spirits may
be thus propitiated, no sacrifice is acceptable to the Supreme Deity; that all He
claims is devout worship.
They believe in the existence of three and thirty millions of good and evil spirits,
but their special adoration seems to be reserved for the spirit which watches over
their particular village, and in their temples they reserve for him a kind of ark or
shrine, wherein his veiled image is carefully preserved. Every day this ark is
slung upon long poles, and taken out for an airing; and once a year it is borne
through the country side in solemn procession, and the people assemble and
dance before it, as the Israelites of old danced before the tabernacle. The said ark
is gaily decorated with bright-coloured hangings, and upon it is set a brazen