7
WHY RITUALS?
On the appointed day, the villagers gather near a
shrine dedicated to Buyut Celi, a long-departed hero who is now a
powerful spirit and a were-tiger. People who pray to Buyut sometimes
see him appear as a gigantic and threatening tiger's head. Others have
seen him in the form of a dog. He is said to stand up and walk on his
hind legs when nobody is watching. The shrine contains several relics:
a spearhead, small bracelets, a few copper plates with barely legible
inscriptions, a bronze beaker. The caretaker of the shrine takes these,
still wrapped in white cloth, from a shelf near the shrine and hands
them over to his assistants who carefully unwrap the relics and place
them on a pillow. The other participants are now assembled around
the pillow. The caretaker starts cleaning each of the relics, first rub-
bing a split lime on the spearhead, then sprinkling it with a few rice
husks and rubbing the blade with bamboo shavings. This procedure is
repeated three times and then the relic is passed on to the other partic-
ipants, each of whom cleans the spearhead in the same way before
passing it on to the next person, counterclockwise (anyone who
handed it over in the other direction would probably die). Then each
of the other relics is inspected in turn, each participant holding the
relic against his forehead while praying. The relics are then given to
the women so they get a share of their blessing and protection. Then
the caretaker stores all the objects in the reliquary until the next year's
ceremonial cleaning.^1
In honor of the goddess Chandli, devotees take a goat to her temple,
to have it purified by a priest who pours consecrated water on the ani-
mal's body while addressing prayers to the goddess. The priest then
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