SIKHA, SANSIC., is the tuft of hair which Hindus leave when shaving their heads, called in Tamil the Kudumi. A considerable number of European missionaries regard the wearing of this tuft as a badge of Hinduism, and require the natives employed in the missions to cut off their kudumi as a sine qua, non to their retention of mission employment. The idol-worshipping Hindus believe that the top of the head, including the anterior and posterior fontanels, is the most sacred part of the body. They say that the fon tanel is the residence of the deity, and call it the 'top eye.' They think also that itis the foun tain of the generating fluid of man which sup plies the lower members of the body when required ; they consider that such holy and useful parts of the body must not without good reason be left un covered, and hence they say is the necessity of pro tecting those spots by a tuft. A sect of Sanyasi, however, walk about with bald heads pretending that they have entirely renounced the world, passed the lower steps of ritualism in the ladder to ascend to heaven, and are living in close com munion with God, constantly looking at him with their top eye. This sect do away with their sacred thread also, evidently showing that they regard the kudumi in the same light as the other cere monies belonging to the lower step of the heavenly ladder. When a Hindu wife is in the family-way, the husband allows his hair to grow without being shaved. After the confinement, if the child be a boy, he, on the 16th day, rises up early in the morning, performs ablutions, comes home with a wet head, enters the room where the child is laid, takes a few drops of water from his wet kudumi, pours thein into the child's mouth, and then for the first time sees and handles the child. After this ceremony he shaves his hair as usual. When the Hindu parents think it necessary to shave the head of the child, they consult an astrologer, who fixes an auspicious day, when the barber is invited to do his duty. A small image of Pillayar, the son of Siva, is made, before which, on a plantain leaf, a thali or platter filled with paddy, a broken cocoanut, and some plantain fruit are laid, and incense offered to the image. The barber puts
his razor before the image and worships it, and then beg-ins the sacred rite of shaving, by putting his razor around the top eye, and leaving a circular portion of hair over the sacred spot unshaven. The Brahman father holds the hair of the child at the crown of the head, and puts the razor around. it, while his guru repeats certain mantra, and the,n shaves the rest of the hair himself, or asks somebody else to do it. It is the custom with certain castes to wet the head with the juice of the cocoanut kernel, beginning with the circular portion of hair to be left as kudumi. A portion of the juice thus used is then poured at the foot of a palmyra tree as an offering to Parvati, the sakti or consort of Siva, The Hindu believes that the way of extracting toddy from the palinyra was taught by Parvaii, and to this day it is the custom of the palinyra-climbers to make special offerings to her when they begin their career. The hair shaven from tho head of a little child, especially froin the head of the first-born, must not be thoughtlessly thrown away, inasmuch as it is derived from the father of the child, who allowed his hair to grow unshaven, with a special vow for the safety of the child, from the time of its con ception till its birth. Some old men gay that it was formerly the custom to burn the hair with certain ceremonies, as the Nazarites of the Hebrews did theirs. The shaven hair is now in general carefully enclosed in a silver case, and tied around the waist of the child as an amulet to ward off sickness. Some people tie it in a cloth and carefully preserve it in pots. The circular portion left on the head must be carefully kept and oiled, while the rest of the hair shaven must thus be respectfully treated, otherwise the pro sperity and welfare of the child is endangered. It the parents lose their children successively one after another, they keep the kudiuni at the back of the child's head on the posterior fontanel, and if the child survive the period in which the one previous to it died, the parents go about ask ing alms, make a feast to the pandarams, take off the as it is called, and then remove the kinlunti to the front of the head.