Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/388

HOLEYA prevented from entering by his brother-in-law, to whom he gives betel leaves and areca nuts. He then makes a forcible entrance into the hut. When a Māri Holeya girl reaches puberty, she is expected to remain within a hut for twelve days, at the end of which time the castemen are invited to a feast. The girl is seated on a pattern drawn on the floor. At the four corners thereof, vessels filled with water are placed. The girl's mother holds over her head a plantain leaf, and four women belonging to different balls (septs) pour water thereon from the vessels. These women and the girl then sit down to a meal, and eat off the same leaf. Among the Māri Holeyas, the dead are usually buried, and the final death ceremonies are performed on the twelfth day. A pit is dug near the grave, into which an image of the deceased, made of rice straw, is put. The image is set on fire by his son or nephew. The ashes are heaped up, and a rude hut is erected round them by fixing three sticks in the ground, and covering them with a cloth. Food is offered on a leaf, and the dead person is asked to eat it. The Kūsa Holeyas speak Canarese. They object to carrying articles with four legs, unless the legs are crossed. They do not eat beef, and will not touch leather. They consider themselves to be superior to the other sections of Holeyas, and use as an argument that their caste name is Uppāra, and not Holeya. Why they are called Uppāra is not clear, but some say that they are the same as the Uppāras (salt workers) of Mysore, who, in South Canara, have descended in the social scale. The hereditary occupation of the Uppāras is making salt from salt earth (ku, earth). The headman of the Kūsa Holeyas is called Buddivant. As they are disciples of a