Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/420

IRULA is kept till the time of the funeral, men and women dance to the music of the Irula band. The dead are buried in a sitting posture, with the legs crossed tailorwise. Each village has its own burial-ground. A circular pit is dug, from the lower end of which a chamber is excavated, in which the corpse, clad in its own clothes, jewelry, and a new cloth, is placed with a lamp and grain. The pit is then filled in, and the position of the grave marked by a stone. On the third day a sheep is said to be killed, and a feast held. The following description of an annual ceremony was given to me. A lamp and oil are purchased, and rice is cooked in the village. They are then taken to the shrine at the burial-ground, offered up on stones, on which some of the oil is poured, and pūja is done. At the shrine, a pūjāri, with three white marks on the forehead, officiates. Like the Badaga Dēvādāri, the Irula pūjāri at times becomes inspired by the god. Writing concerning the Kurumbas and Irulas, Mr.Walhouse says * that "after every death among them, they bring a long water-worn stone (devva kotta kallu), and put it into one of the old cromlechs sprinkled over the Nilgiri plateau. Some of the larger of these have been found piled up to the cap-stone with such pebbles, which must have been the work of generations. Occasionally, too, the tribes mentioned make small cromlechs for burial purposes, and place the long water-worn pebbles in them." The following sub-divisions of the tribe have been described to me: — Poongkaru, Kudagar (people of Coorg), Kalkatti (those who tie stone), Vellaka, Devāla, and Koppilingam. Of these, the first five are considered