Page:Gódávari.djvu/274

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248
GODAVARI.

and worshipped. Various peculiar rites are performed at the festival. The buffalo which is sacrificed is not killed outright; but a wound is first made in its neck and a potful of its blood is collected. A hook-swinging is conducted, but a sheep is the victim, and not a man, and it is swung by a rope tied round its body. The ordinary offerings of sheep, fowls, buffaloes, etc., are also made in fulfilment of vows. Another local deity is called Kannamma Pérantálu ('housewife Kannamma'). She was a Reddi woman. She, her husband, and her six sons all died on one day of cholera about 40 years ago, and her soul appeared to one of her relatives and said she had been deified. Ever since then she has been worshipped by all the non-Bráhman Hindus of the place, who offer her sheep, fowls, cloths, etc. Her shrine is an unpretentious tiled house.

The industries of the place are of some note. Some 400 households of Dévángas weave coloured cloths for men and women, and some of them can do simple embroidery. A few Rangáris stamp chintzes^ and some thirty Kamsalas make vessels of brass, bell-metal and lead. One or two Múchis are said to paint with skill, and thirty Kamsala and Odde carpenters do excellent wood-carving. Three fair-sized tanneries, managed by Labbais, are at work, and good shoes are made by Mádigas and Gódáras. A few potters make good gújás.