Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/56

42 retaliate, beginning with the head man among the murderers, removing one every year. A regular vendetta begins in this way.

A few more words may not inappropriately be added on the death ceremonies of the Muppans.

When a man is at the point of death, a little rice and râgi (a millet) are put into his mouth, and also a small silver coin, if one is available. The corpse is washed, and clothed with a fresh cloth. It is carried on a flat mat-like bier feet foremost through the door and all the way to the place of burning, where it is carried thrice round the funeral pyre before being placed upon it. Very likely the last-mentioned feature in the ceremony has been borrowed from the Hindus. Green logs of a certain tree (valuga maram in the vernacular), are used for consuming the body by fire. The head is placed towards the south. Fire is applied by the headman, while the relatives stand close by. When the body has been burnt, the widow gives to each person present a little rice, sprinkling it with water as she does so, and every one throws the rice on the burnt pyre. Any ornaments which may have been worn by the deceased, and which are of the commoner metals, (but never if of gold), are left untouched. Every one then leaves the place, walking to the pâḍi without looking back. The pâḍi may be in any direction, as it is immaterial on which side of it a corpse is cremated. As they enter the pâḍi, a bamboo vessel (Plate I.), containing water in which a little cow-dung is mingled, is placed conveniently, and every one, the headman leading, sprinkles a little of this mixture to right and left, while the last man sprinkles all that remains around the pâḍi. Râgi, but not rice, is eaten on this day. Râgi, it should be said, is the coarser commoner food of the two. On the following day no one works; they merely bathe, and their food consists of râgi only. On the next day anything excepting fish may be eaten; and death-pollution is for the present at an end. The nearest of kin