Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The dead are, as a rule, burnt. By some of the Jhodia Porojas, the
ashes are subsequently buried in a pit a few feet deep, near the
burning-ground, and the grave is marked by a heap of stones. A pole
is set up in this heap, and water poured on it for twelve days. On
the fourth day, cooked rice and fish are set on the way leading to
the spot where the corpse was burned. The celebrants of the death
rite then take mango bark, paint it with cow-dung, and sprinkle
themselves with it. The ceremony concludes with a bath, feast, and
drink. Among the Bonda Porojas, some of the jewelry of the deceased
person is burnt with the corpse, and the remainder given to the
daughter or daughter-in-law. They observe pollution for three days,
during which they do not enter their fields. On the fourth day,
they anoint themselves with castor-oil and turmeric, and bathe.
Mr. G. F. Paddison informs me that he once gave medicine to the Porojas
during an epidemic of cholera in a village. They all took it eagerly,
but, as he was going away, asked whether it would not be quicker cure
to put the witch in the next village, who had brought on the cholera,
into jail.
A Bonda Poroja dance is said to be very humourous. The young men tie
a string of bells round their legs, and do the active part of the
dance. The women stand in a cluster, with faces to the middle, clap
their hands, and scream at intervals, while the men hop and stamp, and
whirl round them on their own axes. The following account of a dance
by the Jhodia Poroja girls of the Koraput and Nandapuram country is
given by Mr. W. Francis. [111] "Picturesque in the extreme," he writes,
"is a dancing party of these cheery maidens, dressed all exactly alike
in clean white cloths with cerise borders or checks, reaching barely
half way to the knee; great rings on their fingers; brass bells on
their toes; their substantial but shapely arms and legs tattooed from
wrist to shoulder, and from ankle to knee; their left forearms hidden
under a score of heavy brass bangles; and their feet loaded with
chased brass anklets weighing perhaps a dozen pounds. The orchestra,
which consists solely of drums of assorted shapes and sizes, dashes
into an overture, and the girls quickly group themselves into a couple
of corps de ballet, each under the leadership of a première danseuse,
who marks the time with a long baton of peacock's feathers. Suddenly,
the drums drop to a muffled beat, and each group strings out into a
long line, headed by the leader with the feathers, each maiden passing
her right hand behind the next girl's back, and grasping the left elbow
of the next but one. Thus linked, and in time with the drums (which
now break into allegro crescendo), the long chain of girls--dancing
in perfect step, following the leader with her swaying baton, marking
the time by clinking their anklets (right, left, right, clink; left,
clink; right, left, right, clink; and so da capo), chanting the while
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