Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/39

Rh were probably poisoned, but how it was managed remains a mystery, although the family was under the protection of a European gentleman, who would at once have brought to light any ostensible foul play." The Kādir dead are buried in a grave, or, if death occurs in the depths of the jungles, with a paucity of hands available for digging, the corpse is placed in a crevice between the rocks, and covered over with stones. The grave is dug from four to five feet deep. There is no special burial-ground, but some spot in the jungle, not far from the scene of death, is selected. A band of music, consisting of drum and fife, plays weird dirges outside the hut of the deceased, and whistles are blown when it is carried away therefrom. The old clothes of the deceased are spread under the corpse, and a new cloth is put on it. It is tied up in a mat, which completely covers it, and carried to the burial-ground on a bamboo stretcher. As it leaves the hut, rice is thrown over it. The funeral ceremony is simple in the extreme. The corpse is laid in the grave on a mat in the recumbent posture, with the head towards the east, and with split bamboo and leaves placed all round it, so that not a particle of earth can touch it. No stone, or sepulchral monument of any kind, is set up to mark the spot. The Kādir believes that the dead go to heaven, which is in the sky, but has no views as to what sort of place it is. The story that the Kādirs eat their dead originated with Europeans, the origin of it being that no one had ever seen a dead Kādir, a grave, or sign of a burial-place. The Kādirs themselves are reticent as to their method of disposing of the dead, and the story, which was started as a joke, became more or less believed. Mr. Vincent tells me that a well-to-do Kādir family will perform the final death ceremonies eight days after death, but poorer