GAZETTEER
The balli játra ('sand feast') is also a great day in Bissamkatak. It takes place in September-October. The people go in procession to the river, whence five men bring five baskets of sand to a building called the balli ghoro, or 'sand house.' In these are planted the nine kinds of grain. On the twelfth day, by which time the seeds have sprouted, a swing, the seat of which is covered with sharp nails, is set up before them, and on this a bezzu (medicine-man and exorcist) is swung,while goats and pigeons are sacrificed by those who have taken vows to do so. The bezzu then also performs a fire-walking of the ordinary kind. He spends most of the three nights before this day in dancing wildly and working himself up into a state of excitement, during which he prophesies both good and evil and pretends to grant boons (such as children to the childless and health to the sick) to those who ask them.
Similar feasts occur at Kutragada, Gudári, Gunupur and other places round, and buffaloes are often sacrificed at them instead of only goats and pigeons.
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