CHAPTER LXXVI.                          i8i

grihct (?); they wash themselves and eat well growing
grain-fruit that their children should be healthy. The
women celebrate this festival when they are pregnant
and desire to have children.

The nth Bhadrapada is called Parvctti (?). This is ntiiBiiad-
the name of a thread which the priest makes from plJge 289.
materials presented to him for the purpose. One part
of it he dyes with crocus, the other he leaves as it is.
He gives the thread the same length as the statue of
Vasudeva is high. Then he throws it over his neck,
so that it hangs down to his feet. It is a much vene¬
rated festival.

The i6th, the first day of the black half, is the first 16thBhad-
of seven days which are called kardra, (?), when they '
adorn the children nicely and give a treat to them.
They play with various animals. On the seventh day
the men adorn themselves and celebrate a festival.
And during the rest of the month they always adorn
the children towards the end of the day, give alms to
the Brahmans, and do works of piety.

When the moon stands in her fourth station, Rohini,
they call this time Gundlahid (?), celebrating a festival
during three days and making merry by playing with
each other, from joy over the birth of Vasudeva.

Jivasarman relates that the people of Kashmir cele- 26th, 27th
brate a festival on the 26th and 27th of this month, pad\i.
on account of certain pieces of wood called gana (?),
which the water of the river Vitasta (Jailam) carries,
in those two days, through the capital, Adhishtlidna,.
People maintain that it is Mahadeva who sends them.
It is peculiar to these pieces of wood, so they say, that
nobody is able to seize them, however much he may desire
it, that they always evade his grasp and move away.

However, the people of Kashmir, with whom I have
conversed on the subject, give a different statement as
to the place and the time, and maintain that the thing
occurs in a pond called K'ddaishahr (?), to the left of the