62 The Holi: a Vernal Festival of the Hindus.
thrown into the fire, and the remainder given to friends.^^ The Gaddis of the Panjab Hills eat parched maize, apparently ceremonially, at the Holi.^^ In parts of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the presentation of firstfruits is absent, but some people throw into the fire cow-dung cakes and five sticks ; they rub themselves and their children with the greasy condiment with which the bride and bridegroom are anointed before marriage, and, scraping the dirt thus produced off their bodies, they throw it into the fire.-'^
Probably, in the more primitive form of the rite, the fire was lighted with "pure" fire, that produced by friction. But this custom, possibly under Brahman influence, — the production and maintenance of the sacred fire being now specialized by the Agnihotra section of Brahmans,^^ — does not seem to prevail at the present day. In the Deccan it is the rule that the Holi fire of the Mahar caste, now a body of degraded village menials, is started first, and from it that of the higher classes is lighted. But stealing the fire from them is a matter of some risk, because the Mahars are on the look out, and fling burning brands at the thief.^^
As a rule, the lighting of the fire is the business of the householder or headman for the family and village fires respectively. Sometimes, as among the forest tribes, a man becomes possessed, and to him the duty is assigned. Among the more Hinduized castes and tribes, a Brahman sometimes attends, supervizes the proceedings, repeats charms, and recites prayers. But, on the whole, the festival
^ Bombay Gazetteer {I'S^o), vol. xii., p. loo.
26 H. A. Rose, Glossary of Tribes and Castes of the Ptmjab and North- West Frontier Province (1911), vol. ii., p. 271.
2' North India?! Notes and Queries, vol. v. (1896), p. 215.
'^^W. Crooke, The Tribes and Castes of the North- West Provinces and Oudh (1896), vol. i., pp.'30-3-
-* Yeotinal Gazetteer (1908), vol. i., p. 53; Ethnographic Survey Central Provinces (1911), Part ix., p. S3 : Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xviii. (1885), Part i., p. 292.
