Note 17 — P

It is recorded,17 in connection with a biennial festival in honour of the local goddess at Āttūr in the Madura district, that “some time before the feast begins, the Pallans of the place go round to the adjoining villages, and collect the many buffaloes, which have been dedicated to the goddess during the last two years, and have been allowed to graze unmolested, and where they willed, in the fields. These are brought in to Āttur, and one of them is selected, garlanded, and placed in the temple. On the day of the festival, this animal is brought out, led round the village in state, and then, in front of the temple, is given three cuts with a knife by a Chakkiliyan, who has fasted that day, to purify himself for the rite. The privilege of actually killing the animal belongs by immemorial usage to the head of the family of the former poligar of Nilakkōttai, but he deputes certain Pallans to take his place, and they fall upon the animal and slay it.”