ed when the _sal_
tree [363] flowers, the Karma or May-day when the rice is ready for
planting out, and the Kanihari or harvest celebration.

"At the Karma festival a party of young people of both sexes," says
Colonel Dalton, "proceed to the forest and cut a young _karma_ tree
(_Nauclea parvifolia_) or the branch of one; they bear this home
in triumph and plant it in the centre of the Akhara or wrestling
ground. Next morning all may be seen at an early hour in holiday
array, the elders in groups under the fine old tamarind trees that
surround the Akhara, and the youth of both sexes, arm-linked in a
huge circle, dancing round the _karma_ tree, which, festooned with
garlands, decorated with strips of coloured cloth and sham bracelets
and necklets of plaited straw, and with the bright faces and merry
laughter of the young people encircling it, reminds one of the
gift-bearing tree so often introduced at our own great festival." The
tree, however, probably corresponds to the English Maypole, and the
festival celebrates the renewal of vegetation.

20. The _sal_ flower festival

At the Sarhul festival the marriage of the sun-god and earth-mother
is celebrated, and this cannot be done till the _sal_ tree gives
the flowers for the ceremony. It takes place about the beginning of
April on any day when the tree is in flower. A white cock is taken
to represent the sun and a black hen the earth; their marriage is
celebrated by marking them with vermilion, and they are sacrificed. The
villagers then accompany the Pahan or Baiga, the village priest, to
the _sarna_ or sacred grove, a remnant of the old _sal_ forest in
which is located Sarna Burhi or 'The old women of the grove.' "To
this dryad," writes Colonel Dalton, "who is supposed to have great
influence over the rain (a superstition not improbably founded on the
importance of trees as cloud-compellers), the party offer five fowls,
which are afterwards eaten, and the remainder of the day is spent
in feasting. They return laden with the flowers of the _sal_ tree,
and next morning with the Baiga pay a visit to every house, carrying
the flowers. The women of the village all stand on the threshold of
their houses, each holding two leaf-cups; one empty to receive the
holy water; the other with rice-beer for the Baiga. His reverence
stops at each house, and places flowers over it and in the hair of
the women. He sprinkles the holy water on the seeds that have been
kept for the n