Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Thurston, Edgar
General
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
stage we noticed a woman go up to the eldest son of the deceased,
who was seated apart from the other men, and would not be comforted
in spite of her efforts to console him. On receipt of a summons from
within the shola, the assembled Toda men and ourselves swarmed into
it by a narrow track leading to a small clear space round a big tree,
from a hole cut at the base of which an elderly Toda produced a piece
of the skull of the dead woman, wrapped round with long tresses of her
hair. It now became the men's turn to exhibit active signs of grief,
and all of one accord commenced to weep and mourn. Amid the scene
of lamentation, the hair was slowly unwrapt from off the skull, and
burned in an iron ladle, from which a smell as of incense arose. A
bamboo pot of ghi was produced, with which the skull was reverently
anointed, and placed in a cloth spread on the ground. To this relic
of the deceased the throng of men, amid a scene of wild excitement,
made obeisance by kneeling down before it, and touching it with their
foreheads. The females were not permitted to witness this stage of the
proceedings, with the exception of one or two near relatives of the
departed one, who supported themselves sobbing against the tree. The
ceremonial concluded, the fragment of skull, wrapt in the cloth, was
carried into the open, where, as men and boys had previously done,
women and girls made obeisance to it. A procession was then again
formed, and marched on until a place was reached, where were two
stone-walled kraals, large and small. Around the former the men,
and within the latter the women, took up their position, the men
engaging in chit-chat, and the women in mourning, which after a
time ceased, and they too engaged in conversation. A party of men,
carrying the skull, still in the cloth, set out for a neighbouring
shola, where a kedu of several other dead Todas was being celebrated;
and a long pause ensued, broken eventually by the arrival of the
other funeral party, the men advancing in several lines, with arms
linked, and crying out U, hah! U, hah, hah! in regular time. This
party brought with it pieces of the skulls of a woman and two men,
which were placed, wrapt in cloths, on the ground, saluted, and mourned
over by the assembled multitude. At this stage a small party of Kotas
arrived, and took up their position on a neighbouring hill, waiting,
vulture-like, for the carcase of the buffalo which was shortly to be
slain. Several young men now went off across the hill in search of
buffaloes, and speedily re-appeared, driving five buffaloes before
them with sticks. As soon as the beasts approached a swampy marsh
at the foot of the hill on which the expectant crowd of men was
gathered together, two young men of athletic build, throwing off
their putkulis, made a rush down the hill, and tried to seize one
of the buffaloes by the horns, with the result that one of them
was promptly thrown. The buffalo escaping, one of the remaining
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account