Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/524

KORAVA blow. With this implement animals are slaughtered, murders committed, and bamboos split. For the purpose of committing burglaries, the Koravas are said by Mr. Mullaly to use an iron instrument pointed at either end, called gādi kōlu or sillu kōlu, which is offered, before a gang sets out, to Perumāl, whose aid in the success of the undertaking is invoked. The Koravas as a class are industrious, and generally doing something. One may see the men on the march twisting threads into stout cord. Others will be making fine nets for fishing, or coarse ones, in which to suspend household pots or utensils; straw pads, on which the round-bottomed chatties invariably stand; or a design with red thread and cowry shells, wherewith to decorate the head of a bull or a money-bag. It is when hawking these articles from door to door that the Koravas are said to gain information as to property which may be worth stealing. The following is a free translation of a song representing Koracha characteristics, in a play by Mr. D. Krishnamacharlu, a well-known amateur dramatist of Bellary: —


 * Hurrah! Our Koracha caste is a very fine caste.
 * The best of castes, Hurrah!


 * When a temple feast is proceeding,
 * We beg, and commit thefts surprising.
 * Don't we? Care we for aught?
 * Don't we slip off uncaught?

Rh
 * Cutting trinkets off,
 * From the necks of babes in their mothers' arms.
 * Who could suspect us? Cannot we hoodwink them all?
 * Cannot we get away?

Rh