CHAPTER IX.
POUS, DECEMBER.
This month, from its being very cold, I suppose, has no public worship. Nothing particularly religious attracts the minds of the people, or pleases their eyes. In fact, the artists who make the idols, and the musicians who sing before them, close their business this month. But it ought to be observed that the stage on which the Hindoos exhibit their idols seldom becomes vacant. A worship of some kind, general or occasional, must go on. The prevalence of small-pox demands offerings to Shitola, the goddess of that fatal, contagious disease. A set of men walk round from door to door with small images of the goddess. Coming to the threshold, the idol carrier blows a shell to announce the advent of the goddess, as well as to gather the inmates of the house, and secure a hearing thereby. He sings or recites a false story descriptive of the wrath of the goddess to the scoffers, and her kindness to the believers, etc. I used to ask these men to go somewhere else, and not to trouble us, but my mother would not have me do such things, and asked them to come back, apologized for my rashness, bowed down before their idols, and gave them some money! In the end of this month the farmers particularly worship the barns, rice-stacks, etc., as the representation of Luckhee,—the goddess of harvest, giver of wealth, prosperity, etc. On which occasion the whole of Bengal makes a feast of cakes for three days in succession. In these days some people eat nothing but cakes of various shape, size, and taste.