250 Demon-worship and Spirit-worship.

post—comes forward naked, except round the loins, his
head and body being grotesquely and frightfully besmeared
with white, yellow, and red paint. Meanwhile a dozen or
more tom-toms are beaten with a continually increasing
din, and the Dher (Dheda) presently breaks into a maniac
dance, capering, bounding, and spinning vehemently. At
length he stops; he is full of the demon, and stands fixed and
rigid, with staring eyes. Presently he speaks, or rather the
demon speaks through him, in loud, hoarse, commanding tones,
wholly unlike his own, or indeed any natural voice. Various
disputes and litigated matters, especially when evidence and
ordinary means of adjustment fail, are then brought forward
and submitted to the decision of the Bhuta, and his award,
pronounced through the Dher, is generally, though not al-
ways, submitted to. After this the demon desires to have
food, and the Dher eats fried rice and drinks the milk of
young cocoa-nuts ; or, if the demon he represents be one of
low degree, he eats animal food and drinks arrack.

Among the demons most feared in Kanara are Kalkatti,
Kallurti, and Pafijurli.

The story of the former two is as follows:—Kalkatti and
Kallurti were respectively the son and daughter of one
Kalkuda, a sculptor, who must have lived in the fifteenth
century of our era. Kalkatti was a mason, and one day found
fault with his father's work, which so distressed him that he
forthwith killed himself. The son then followed his father's
trade, and succeeded so well that he made the celebrated
Jain statue at Karakal. After completing this masterpiece
he wanted to go elsewhere, but the king of the country
forbad him, and to prevent his producing any similar statue
cut off his left hand and right leg. Notwithstanding this
mutilation he went to Yenur and made a still larger statue
there. His sister Kallurti determined to join him at Yenur.
There they lived together for some time, and then both
committed suicide. It was thus that they became formidable