Note 65 — Chapter VI · SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.

The ceremonies in vogue at Mathura have been very carefully recorded by Mr. Growse.65 He notes “the cheeriness of the holiday-makers as they throng the narrow, winding streets on their way to and from the central square of the town of Barsâna, where they break into groups of bright and ever varying combinations of colour, with the buffooneries of the village clowns, and the grotesque dances of the lusty swains, who, with castanets in hand, caricature in their movements the conventional graces of the Indian ballet girl.