The Holi : a Vernal Festival of the Hindus. 67
Nambiyar Brahman becomes possessed and treads down the red-hot ashes.*^
Such rites are not confined to Hindus. In Gujarat the Muhammadan Pliadali or " spirit-musician " becomes pos- sessed. A pit is filled with hot embers, and a woman who has made a vow to perform the bahliin rite at marriage, in the seventh month of pregnancy, or at the initiation of a boy, comes up, and, keeping time with the Phadali's song, takes the glowing coals in her hands, crushes them till they become black, and then dancing in the pit stamps out the fire with her feet. Cases do happen in which the fire- walker suffers severe injury; but when this occurs it is attributed to the neglect of the rules of ceremonial purity, or to want of cleanliness in cooking the food for the feast, or in plastering the floor where the fire is lighted."*^ At the feast of the Muharram a hole {aldwa) is filled with fire, and people with drawn swords jump over it, invoking the martyrs who are commemorated at this feast, with shouts of " Ya 'All, Hasan, Husain, Dulha," — the martyrs and the bridegroom of the tragedy.^"*
It is impossible to discuss in detail the question of the immunity of the performer from burns in the course of the fire-walking rite. There seems to be little or no evidence that any special protective drugs or other substances are rubbed on the feet of the fire- walkers. In some cases it is clear that they do not walk actually upon the blazing embers, but on the sides of the pile or pit, or the embers are covered with a layer of ashes which do not readily conduct heat. To this may be added the fact that the feet of Indian peasants, accustomed to walk barefoot, become hardened like leather. Mr. N. W. Thomas writes:
^^ Ibid, vol. ii., pp. 1 35-6.
- ' Bombay Gazetteeer, vol. ix. (1898), part ii., p. 151.
- /bid, p. 135; S. H. Bilgrami, C. Willmott, Historical and Descriptive
Sketch of H.H. The Nizaiti's Dominions (1883), vol. i., p. 360; G. A. Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islavi, 2nd ed. (1883), p. 113.
