Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/519

Rh but of their occupants or builders even the Todars have no tradition.

At length, passing through a little stream, and climbing a steep hill, we came in sight of the mourners. They were assembled to the number of two hundred, as is their custom, about midway up a gently-sloping hill, and near a pretty wood. A single house, built for the purpose, contained the females and chief mourners of the family. The others were gathered in groups in the open air. Many of the men were most patriarchal in their appearance, and carried the imagination back to the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not far off sat a company of Kohaters, another of the hill tribes, with filthy robes and tangled locks, waiting like vultures for the flesh of the sacrifices. These degraded creatures are the artisans of the Neilgherries, the smiths and potters of the other tribes; they also cultivate the soil, but they are, in their habits of life, far below the Todars. They are not only flesh-eaters, but eaters of carrion. If a bullock dies of disease, they mark the spot, and returning when the owner has left it to rot, cut the flesh from its bones and carry it to their homes. I have met a company of them bearing a load of meat