Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/535

Rh area was a pyramidal bier, four stories in height, in the lowest story of which the body was placed, while long pieces of white cotton-cloth floated from the corners of the upper stories. A number of Kohatars were in attendance as musicians, and from their horns and pipes extorted most doleful sounds; while a large number of the mourners, with loud outcries, performed a singular dance around the bier, moving slowly round and round with their arms stretched out at length. My companion, Mr. Bühler, had taken his seat at some little distance on the area wall, and gathered quite a company about him to listen to his discourse. In the midst of it, the whole multitude, with a sudden rush, drove past us and up the hill, carrying off all the auditors but one, whose politeness led him to remain and tell us that they were going to the cattle-pen. We followed, and found a number of cattle in a large stone enclosure, which was almost knee-deep with dung. Into this mass of filth, a number of young men leaped, and seizing one of the animals, led it out of the fold, but not until they were completely bedaubed with ordure. After a short invocation, the resisting and struggling creature, upon whom the sins of the dead were supposed to be