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.