Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/439

Rh safely, there is a great celebration in her honour, with beating of tom-tom, etc. The dead are buried with the body lying on its left side, and the head to the south. On their return home from a funeral, those who have been present thereat salute a lighted lamp. On the spot where the dead person breathed his last, a little rāgi (Eleusine Coracana) paste and water are placed, and here, on the fourth day, a goat is sacrificed, and offered up to the soul of the departed. After this the son proceeds to the burial ground, carrying a stone, and followed by men selected from each of the exogamous septs. Arrived near the grave, they sit down, while the son places the stone on the ground, and they then lift it in succession. The last man to do so is said to fall into a trance. On his recovery, leaves (plantain, teak, etc.) corresponding in number to the exogamous septs, are arranged round the stone, and, on each leaf, different kinds of food are placed. The men partake of the food, each from the leaf allotted to his sept. The meal concluded, the son holds the stone in his hands, while his companions pour rāgi and water over it, and then carries it away to the gopamane (burial-ground) of his sept, and sets it up there.

On the occasion of a death in a Mala Vellāla village, the Shōlagas come in crowds, with clarionets and drums, and bells on their legs, and dance in front of the house. And the corpse is borne, in musical procession, to the burning-ground. The staple food of the Shōlagas is rāgi paste and yams (Dioscorea), which, like the Urālis, they supplement by sundry jungle animals and birds. Paroquets they will not eat, as they regard them as their children. Their main occupation is to collect minor forest produce, myrabolams, vembadam bark (Ventilago