Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/337

Rh " Kolachi, Kolachi, Kolachi." The girl may then leave the middle room. At the first menstrual period, a girl is under pollution for three days. On the first day, a cloth (māttu) is given to her by a washerwoman, and on the fourth day she receives one from a Malayan woman. The dead are usually cremated. Daily, until the twelfth day of the death ceremonies, food is offered to the spirit of the deceased, on a dais set up outside the house, by the relatives. On the fifth day, all the agnates are purified by the Vāthiyan sprinkling water over them. On the twelfth day, the Vāthiyan draws the image of a man with vibūthi (sacred ashes) on the spot where the deceased breathed his last. Near the figure, cooked rice, vegetables, etc., are placed. The chief mourner offers these to the dead person, and makes a bundle of them in his cloth. Going outside the house, he kicks the dais already referred to with his foot, while the Vāthiyan holds one hand, and his relations the other hand or arm. He then bathes in a tank (pond) or river, while his hands are held in like manner.  Kōli.— In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Kōlis are described as being "a Bombay caste of fishermen and boatmen in South Canara; also a low class of Bengal weavers found in Ganjam." The Kōlis who were investigated in Ganjam are an Oriya- speaking class, who are apparently Telugu people who have settled in the Oriya country as weavers of coarse cloths, traders, and agriculturists. They have Oriya titles such as Bēhara. They worship village deities (Tākurānis), are Saivites, and none of them have been converted to the Paramartho form of Vishnavism. The caste council, puberty and death ceremonies, are based on the common Oriya type, but the marriage rites are 