Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/428

IRULA is lighted, and raw rice, jaggery (crude sugar), rice flour, betel leaves and areca nuts are offered before it. Māri is represented by a white rag flag dyed with turmeric, hoisted on a bamboo in an open space near their dwellings, to which fowls, sheep, and other cooked articles, are offered. The dead are buried lying flat on the face, with the head to the north, and the face turned towards the east. When the grave has been half filled in, they throw into it a prickly-pear (Opuntia Dillenii) shrub, and make a mound over it. Around this they place a row or two of prickly-pear stems to keep off jackals. No monumental stone is placed over the grave. By means of the following table a comparison can be readily made between the stature and nasal index of the jungle Shōlagas and Nīlgiri Irulas, and of the more civilised Irulas of Chingleput and Ūrālis of Coimbatore: — The table shows clearly that, while all the four tribes are of short and uniform stature, the nasal index, both as regards average, maximum and minimum, is higher in the Shōlagas and Irulas of the Nīlgiri jungles than in the more domesticated Irulas of Chingleput