Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Concerning the Adivi, or forest Gollas, Mr. F. Fawcett writes
as follows. [146] "The people of every house in the village let
loose a sheep, to wander whither it will, as a sort of perpetual
scapegoat. When a woman feels the first pains of labour, she is turned
out of the village into a little leaf or mat hut about two hundred
yards away. In this hut she must bring forth her offspring unaided,
unless a midwife can be called in to be with her before the child is
born. For ninety days the woman lives in the hut by herself. If any one
touches her, he or she is, like the woman, outcasted, and turned out
of the village for three months. The woman's husband generally makes
a little hut about fifty yards from her, and watches over her; but he
may not go near her on pain of being outcasted for three months. Food
is placed on the ground near the woman's hut, and she takes it. On
the fourth day after parturition, a woman of the village goes to her,
and pours water on her, but she must not come in contact with her. On
the fifth day, the village people clear of stones and thorny bushes a
little bit of ground about ten yards on the village side of the hut,
and to this place the woman removes her hut. No one can do it for her,
or help her. On the ninth, fifteenth, and thirtieth days, she removes
the hut in the same way nearer to the village, and, again, once in
each of the two following months. On the ninetieth day, the headman
of the village calls the woman to come out of the hut. The dhobi
(washerman) then washes her clothes. She puts on clean clothes, and
the headman takes her to the temple of their tutelary deity Junjappa,
where the caste pujari breaks cocoanuts, and then accompanies her
to her house, where a purificatory ceremony is performed. Junjappa,
it is said, takes good care of the mother and child, so that death
is said to be unknown."
It is stated [147] that, in the Chitaldrug district of Mysore,
"the wife of the eldest son in every family is not permitted to clean
herself with water after obeying the calls of nature. It is an article
of their belief that their flocks will otherwise not prosper."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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