through the streets, striking together the wands which they carry.  These cow-boys not only dress (as do others) in new clothes on this occasion,[56] but they give their cattle new equipments, and regard the whole frolic as part of a religious rite in honor of Krishna, the cow-herd.  But all sects take part in the performance (that is to say, in the Hol[=i] portion), both Civaites and Vishnuites.  When the moon is full the celebration is at its height.  Hol[=i] songs are sung, the crowd throws ab[=i]r the chiefs feast, and an all-night orgy ends the long carousal.[57] In the south the Dol[=a] takes place later, and is distinct from the Hol[=i].  The burning here is of K[=a]ma, commemorating the love-god’s death by the fire of Civa’s eye, when the former pierced the latter’s heart, and inflamed him with love.  For this reason the bonfire is made before a temple of Civa.  K[=a]ma is gone from the northern cult, and in upper India only a hobgoblin, Hol[=i], a foul she-devil, is associated with the rite.  The whole performance is described and prescribed in one of the late Pur[=a]nas.[58] In some parts of the country the bonfire of the Hol[=i] is made about a tree, to which offerings are made, and afterwards the whole is set on fire.  For a luminous account of the Hol[=i], which is perhaps the worst open rite of Hinduism, participated in by all sects and classes, we may cite the words of the author of Ante-Brahmanical Religions:  “It has been termed the Saturnalia or Carnival of the Hindus.  Verses the most obscene imaginable are ordered to be read on the occasion.  Figures of men and women, in the most indecent and disgusting attitudes, are in many places openly paraded through the streets; the most filthy words are uttered by persons who, on other occasions, would think themselves disgraced by the use of them; bands of men parade the street with their clothes all bespattered with a reddish dye; dirt and filth are thrown upon all that are seen passing along the road; all business is at a stand, all gives way to license and riot."[59]

Besides these the most brilliant festivals are the R[=a]s Y[=a]tr[=a] in Bengal (September-October), commemorating the dance of Krishna with the gop[=i]s or milk-maids, and the ‘Lamp-festival’ (D[=i]p[=a]l[=a]), also an autumnal celebration.

The festivals that we have reviewed cover but a part of the year, but they will suffice to show the nature of such fetes as are enjoined in the Pur[=a]nas.  There are others, such as the eightfold[60] temple-worship of Krishna as a child, in July or August; the marriage of Krishna’s idol to the Tulasi plant; the Awakening of Vishnu, in October, and so forth.  But no others compare in importance with the New Year’s and Spring festivals, except the Bengal idol-display of Jagann[=a]th, the Rath Y[=a]tr[=a] of ‘Juggernaut’; and some others of local celebrity, such as the D[=u]rg[=a]-p[=u]j[=a].[61] The temples, to which reference has often been made,