Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/520

454 hung upon a pole between two men, when its smell even in passing was most offensive.

The deceased had died a month before, and had then been burned, with the offering of sacrifices and o'her rites, so that this was a second funeral. A few fragments of the bones of the dead had been preserved, and now, wrapped in a mantle, were laid on the ground in front of the house of mourning. On the preceding day the company had mourned and fasted; on this day they met to continue the ceremonies. When all were assembled, a number of young men, each with a heavy staff on his shoulder, forming themselves into platoons and holding hands, commenced a peculiar marching dance, going round and round in a circle, with loud guttural cries of “Haugh! haugh! haugh! haugh!" until they were exhausted. Others then took their places and continued the club-dance. The mantle containing the relics of the dead was now brought forward and spread upon the ground, and some thirty or forty of the younger men, throwing aside their upper garments, moved to a stonewalled pen hard by, in which a number of buffaloes were confined. With their staves in their hands they leaped into the enclosure, and