NAGA-PANCHAMI is a festival held on the fifth day of the first or bright half of the lunar month S'ravana, which generally corresponds with August of the Christian year. S'ravana is a month in which the Hindus generally have some vrata or ceremony to perform every day, and sometimes more than one festival occurs on one and the same day. The fifth day of the month is considered -sacred to the Naga or serpent. On this day, early in the morning, each family brings an earthen or clay representation of a serpent, or paiuts a family of five, seven, or nine serpents with rubbed sandal-wood or turmeric. If there be a Naga temple in the village, every one goes there to perform worship. The women proceed to snakes' holes, circle round hand in hand, prostrate them selves, and pray for blessings. Offerings are then made to snakes of milk, grain, and other articles poured into holes. Battisa-S'iralen is a town in batara collectorate, in lat. 16° 57' N., and long. 74° 15' E., famous as a place of serpent-worship. Here, at the present day, the snakes called Nagakuli, said to be not very poisonous, are actually caught on the day Of the Naga-panchami, and kept either in earthen pots or covered bamboo baskets. They are fed with milk and edibles, and
worshipped in other respects like the snake images and drawings of snakes. The day after the Naga-panchami they are taken back to the jungles and set free. There is at this town a curious tradition in connection with the Gorakha chincha tree (Adansonia digitata) or the tamarind of Gorakha. Tradition ascribes this tree to be the result of a miracle performed by a saint called Gorakhanatha or Gorakshanatha. A Naga temple, dedicated to the goddess Naga Tambiran, exists in the island of Nainatavoe, S.W. of Jaffna, in which consecrated serpents are reared by the pandarams, and daily fed at the expense of the worshippers. Such temples are to be seen in many places in the south of India. There ate several in the town of Madras, and one of great extent at Vasarapad, a suburban village on its north, where crowds of Brahman women come every Sunday morning to worship. The priests are the wild Yenadi.