Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/363

Rh principal entrance, through which one has to crawl in, but also with a half-concealed hole in the rear, a kind of postern, through which the shy inmates steal out into the jungle at the merest suspicion of danger, or the approach of a stranger. They collect the wild jungle produce, such as cardamoms, etc., for their customary employers, whose agrestic slaves they have virtually become. Their huts are annually or periodically shifted from place to place, usually the most inaccessible and thickest parts of the wilderness. They are said to be very partial to toddy and arrack (alcoholic liquor). It is expected that these savages smuggle across the frontier large quantities of wild pepper and cardamoms from the ghat forests of the province. Their marriage customs are characterised by the utmost simplicity, and the part played therein by the astrologer is not very edifying. Their religion does not seem to transcend devil worship. They bury the dead. A very curious obsequial custom prevails among the Hasalas. When any one among them dies, somebody's devil is credited with the mishap, and the astrologer is consulted to ascertain its identity. The latter throws cowries (shells of Cyprœ moneta) for divination, and mentions some neighbour as the owner of the devil thief. Thereupon, the spirit of the dead is redeemed by the heir or relative by means of a pig, fowl, or other guerdon. The spirit is then considered released, and is thence forward domiciled in a pot, which is supplied periodically with water and nourishment. This may be looked upon as the elementary germ of the posthumous care-taking, which finds articulation under the name of srādh in multifarious forms, accompanied more or less with much display in the more civilised sections of the Hindu community. The Hasalaru are confined to Tīrthahalli and Mūdigere."