ASIATIC RESEARCHES. 
shields with small pendulous plates of 
brass, which clatter as they toss about 
their arms, either in the fight or in the 
dance. ‘The hunter, when in the forests, 
broils his food in a species of hollow bam- 
boo, From the ashes of a different spe- 
cies of the same plant he extracts a kind 
of salt to season his meat; and with two 
pieces of dried bamboo he kindles’ his 
fire. 
«* The Kookies, like all savage people, are 
of a most vindictive disposition, blood must 
always be shed for blood. If a tiger eyen 
kills any of them, near a parah, the whole 
tribe is up in arms, and goes in pursuit of 
the animal; when, if he ts killed, the family 
of the deceased gives a feast of his flesh, in 
revenge of his having killed their relation. 
And should the tribe fail to destroy the tiger 
in this first general pursuit of him, the family 
of the deceased must still continue the chase ; 
for until they have killed either this, or some 
other tyger, and have given a feast of his 
flesh, they are in disgrace in the parah, and 
not associated with by the rest of the inhabi- 
tants. In like manner, if a tiger destroys 
one of a hunting party, or ofa party of war- 
riors on an hostile excursion, ncitherthe one 
nor the other (whatever their succ¢ss may 
have been) can return to the parah without 
being disgraced, unless they kill the tiger. 
A more striking instance still of this revenge- 
fal spirit of retaliation is, thatif a man should 
happen to be killed byan accidental fall from 
a tree, all his relations assemble and cut it 
down; and however large it may be, they re- 
duce it to chips, which they scatter in the 
winds for having, as they say, been. the cause 
of the death of their brother. 
In some of their customs they strik- 
ingly resemble certain North American 
tribes. 
«* When any person dies in a parah, the 
corpse is conveyed by the relations of the de- 
ceased, and deposited upon a stage raised 
under a shed erected for the purpose, at some 
distance from the dwelling-house. While it 
remains there, it is carefully guarded, day 
and night, from the depredations of beasts and 
birds, by some one of the family, and a re- 
yular supply of food and drink is daily 
Breit and Jaid before it. Should more 
than one casually occur in a family, the same 
eeremony ‘is observed with respect to each 
corpse; and at whatever time of the year 
persons may happen to die in the parah, all 
the badies must be-kept in this manner until 
the, 1th of April, called by the Bengalces 
Beessoo. On that day all the relations of the 
deceascd assemble, and convey their remains 
from the sheds to different funeral piles, pre- 
pared for them on a partienlar spot without 
the parah, where they are burnt; as are also. 
the several sheds undér which the*bodies had 
lain from the peviod of theirdecease,  Atter 
901 
this melancholy ceremony is over, the whole 
party repairs to the house of him in whose 
fainily the first casualtywccurred in that year, 
and partakes of an enteriainment given by 
him in honour of the dead. Qn the follow- 
ing day, a similar feast is given by him in 
whose family the next casualty of the season 
had happened ; and thus the feast goes round 
in succession, untilone is given for each of 
the dead. 
«* In this pious preservation of the dead 
till a certain day in the year, when only the 
last solemn’ funeral rites can be performed to 
their remains, there is a singular coincidence 
in the practice of the Kooktes with that of 
some of the tribes of the North American 
Indians, as related in Bartram’s Travels; and 
it must appear a curious fact, that in so very 
particular an instance, there should be thig 
similitude in the eustoms of two savage 
pedple, placed in such opposite parts of the 
world; where the climate, and othen peculia; 
local circumstances, are so totally diferent.” 
They believe a future state of rewards 
and punishments, conceiting that they 
can by no means.*so. certainly ensure fu- 
ture happiness, as by destroying a num- 
ber of their- enemies. Acknowledging 
one omnipotent Creator, whom they call 
Khogein Pootteeang, they offer to him 
no prayer, but address them to Sheem 
Sank, an inferior deity, as a mediator 
with the Supreme Being, and as more 
immediately interesting himself in the 
concerns of individuals. Of Sheem Sank 
they have an idol, none of the Deity; 
they have no priests, each worshipping 
as he thinks best. “To the Deity they 
sacrifice the gyal, as being their most va- 
lued animal ; Sheem Sank must be con- 
tented with a goat ; yet they pile up be- 
fore his image the heads of all their 
game, and of all the enemies whom they 
slay, each having his own pile, and ac- 
cording to its sizeis his fame as a hunter 
or a warrior. In consequence, when 
they surprise and slay the Bengalee 
wood-cutters, whom they sorely annoy, 
it is remarked that they carry away no- 
thing but the heads of their victims, and 
such salt as they’ may have had with 
them. 
. Avery few words of their language 
are given, but these few indicate a scan- 
ty vocabulary, and a regular system of 
compounding words. Father, grand- 
father, and grandmother, are called 
p’ha, p’hoo, p’hee: meepa is a man, 
noo a woman, naoo a child, meepa- 
naoot’he, a boy or man child, noonaoowhe, 
a girl or woman child, noonaoo, or mo- 
ther of children, the word for woman. 
The only other words given, except the 
$M 3 
