16 Account of the Kookies or Lunctas. 



thus ensures him victory. So thought the antient warriors 

 of Sparta, who, like the Kookies of the present day, held 

 in citiiTiation the man who could steal with superior cx- 

 pcrtness. 



The Kookies, like all savage people, arc of a most vin- 

 dictive disposition ; blood must always be shed for blood ; 

 if a tiger even kills any of them near a parah, the whole 

 tribe is up in arms, and goes in pursuit of the animal ; 

 when, if he is killed, the family of the deceased gives a 

 feast of hi? flesh in revenge of his having killed their rela- 

 tion. And should the tribe fail to destroy the tiger in this 

 first general pursuit of him, the family of the deceased must 

 £till continue the chace ; for, until they have killed either 

 this or some other tiger, and have given a feast of his flesh, 

 they are in disgrace in the parah, and not associated with by 

 the rest of the inhabitants. In like manner, if a tiger de- 

 stroys one of a hunting partv, or of a party of warriors on 

 a hostile excursion, neither the one nor the other (what- 

 ever their success may have been) can return to the parah, 

 without being disgraced, unless they kill the tiger. A more 

 striking instance still of this revengeful spirit of retaliation 

 is, that if a man should happen to be killed by an accidental 

 fall from a tree, all his relations assemble and cut it down; 

 and however large it may be, they reduce it to chips, which 

 they scatter in the winds, for having, as they say, been the 

 cause of the death of their brother. They employ much of 

 their time in the chace, and, having no prejudice of cast, 

 or sect, to restrain them in the choice of their game, no 

 animal comes amiss to them. An elephant is an innnense 

 ^)rize for a whole jiarah. They do not remove their parahs 

 so frequently as the Chooineeas do their chooms : ihe 

 Choomeeas seldom remain longer than two years on the 

 ean^e spot, whereas the Kookies arc usually four or five ; 

 and when they migrate they burn their parah, lest the gyals 

 should return to it, as they are frecjuently known to do if 

 the huts are left standing. The Kookies never go to a 

 greater distance from their old ground than a journey of 

 twelve hours, unless compelled to proceed further from 

 some particular cause, such as the fear of an enemy, or the 

 want of a proper spot to fix upon. 



Their great object in selecting a place to settle on, is 

 natural strength of situation, with a suflieiency of good 

 grf)und near the parah on which to rear the different grains, 

 roots, and vegetables they wish to cultivate. They eidtivate 

 the ground as the Choomeeas do ; and in this, as in every 

 Other domestic occupation, the female sex bears the weight 

 3 of 



