Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/34

KOTA {| class="wikitable" The nickname Chinaman was due to the resemblance of a Kota to the Chinese, of whom a small colony has squatted on the slopes of the hills between Naduvatam and Gudalūr.
 * Small mouth. || Opium eater.
 * Head. || Irritable.
 * Slit nose. || Bad-eyed.
 * Burnt-legged. || Curly-haired.
 * Monkey. || Cat-eyed.
 * Dung or rubbish. || Left-handed.
 * Deaf. || Stone.
 * Tobacco. || Stammerer.
 * Hunchback. || Short.
 * Crooked-bodied. || Knee.
 * Long-striding. || Chank-blower.
 * Dwarf. || Chinaman.
 * }
 * Deaf. || Stone.
 * Tobacco. || Stammerer.
 * Hunchback. || Short.
 * Crooked-bodied. || Knee.
 * Long-striding. || Chank-blower.
 * Dwarf. || Chinaman.
 * }
 * Long-striding. || Chank-blower.
 * Dwarf. || Chinaman.
 * }
 * Dwarf. || Chinaman.
 * }

A few days after my arrival at Kotagiri, the dismal sound of mourning, to the weird strains of the Kota band, announced that death reigned in the Kota village. The dead man was a venerable carpenter, of high position in the community. Soon after daybreak, a detachment of villagers hastened to convey the tidings of the death to the Kotas of the neighbouring villages, who arrived on the scene later in the day in Indian file, men in front and women in the rear. As they drew near the place of mourning, they all, of one accord, commenced the orthodox manifestations of grief, and were met by a deputation of villagers accompanied by the band. Meanwhile a red flag, tied to the top of a bamboo pole, was hoisted as a signal of death in the village, and a party had gone off to a glade, some two miles distant, to obtain wood for the construction of the funeral car (teru). The car, when completed, was an elaborate structure, about eighteen feet in height, made of wood and bamboo, in four tiers, each with a canopy of turkey