Note 29 — D

(c) The first prisoner presented an application for the enrolment of his daughter as a dancing-girl at one of the great pagodas. He stated her age to be thirteen. She attained puberty a month or two after her enrolment. Her father was the servant of a dancing-girl, the second prisoner, who had been teaching the minor dancing for some five years. The evidence showed that the second prisoner brought the girl to the pagoda, that both first and second prisoners were present when the bottu (or tāli) was tied, and other ceremonies of the dedication performed; that third prisoner, as Battar of the temple, was the person who actually tied the bottu, which denotes that the Dāsi is wedded to the idol. There was the usual evidence that dancing-girls live by prostitution, though occasionally kept by the same man for a year or more.29