19 Account of the Kookies or Lunctas. 



and its flesh constitutes the first hixury at a Kookie feast*' 

 and, except on very extraordinary occasions, is never given. 

 The sioats are larger and more hairy than those of the plains. 

 ]n the other animals there is nothing peculiar. Notwith- 

 standing that the Kookies have such a number of different 

 articles of lood, yet a scarcity of provisions frequently pre- 

 vails among the tribes, when those upon a friendly footing 

 always assi-l each other; and whatever may have been thus 

 amicablv given is rigidly repaid, in more favourable times, 

 by the tribe which received it. A scarcity may be occa- 

 sioned citiier by the irregularity of the season in a failure 

 or excess of the periodical rains ; or else by the incursions 

 of enemies, who nevsr fall to lay \\'aste and destroy, if they 

 can, every thing to be found without the parah. And the 

 paraii itself, in a fatally unguarded hour, is often destroyed 

 also J when the helpless survivors, if any, of such a calamity 

 are thrown upon the humanity of their neighbouring friends. 

 In the parahs they cook their victuals in earthen pots of 

 their own manufacture resembling those of the Bengalees, 

 but much stronger and thicker in substance. The hunter, 

 howfci'cr, in his excursions throu<jh the forests, boils hi* 

 food in a particular kind of holk)w bamboo. From the 

 ashes of a diiferent species of the same plant he extracts a 

 substitute for salt to eat with his victuals ; and with equal 

 simplicity and readiness he kindles his fire by the friction 

 cf one piece of dried bamboo upon another. The Kookies 

 have but one w ife ; they may, however, keep as manv con- 

 t?ubines as they please. Adultery may be punished with in- 

 stant death by either of the injured parties, if the guilty are 

 taught by them in the fact; it may otherwise be compromised 

 by a line of gyals, as the chief may determine. The frailty 

 of a concubine is always compromised in this way, without 

 disgrace to the parties. Fornication is punished in no other 

 manner than by obliging the parties to marry, unless the 

 man may have used violence; in which case he is punished, 

 generally with death, either by the chief or by the relations 

 of the injured female. Marriage is never consummated 

 among them before the age of puberty. When a young 

 man has fixed his affections upon a young woman either of 

 his own or some neighbouring parah, his father visits her 

 father, and deniands her in marriage for his son : her fa- 

 ther, on this, inquires what are the merits of the young 

 man to entitle him to her favour, and how many hfe can 

 afford to entertain at the wedding feast : to which the father 

 of the young man replies, that his son is a brave warrior, a 

 good hunter, and an expert thief; for that he can produce 



so 



