Account of the Kookies or LunctaSk 19 



so many heads of the enemies he has slain, and of the game 

 he has killed ; that in his house are such and such stolen 

 goods ; and that he can feast so many (mentioning the num- 

 ber) at his marriage. On hearing this, the father of the girl 

 either goes himself, or sends some confidential friend, to 

 ascertain the facts ; which if he finds to be as Stated, he 

 consents to the marriage, and it is celebrated by a feast 

 given by him to the bridegroom and all their mutual friends. 

 At night the bride is led by her husband from her father's 

 house to his own, where he next day entertains the com- 

 pany of the preceding day, wliich is more or less numerous 

 according to the connections and circumstances of the par- 

 ties. When a chief marries, the whole parah is entertained 

 by him ; and should his bride be from another parah, as 

 often happens, the two parahs feast and carouse with each 

 other alternately. At these, and all their festivals, there is 

 much drinking of a liquor made of the rice called decngkroOf 

 of which the Kookies are very fond. There are two kinds 

 of this liquor ; the one pure and hmpld, and the other of a 

 red colour, from an infusion of the leaf of a particular tree 

 called lans^^midlah, which renders it highly intoxicating. 

 They indulge very freely in the use of both kinds, except 

 when they go on hostile excursions : they then rigidly ab- 

 stain from them. In January and February they usually 

 marry, because they have provisions in the greatest plenty, 

 and it is their most idle time. 



When any person dies in a parah, the corpse is conveyed 

 by the relations of the deceased, 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 

 dogs and birds by some one of the family, and a regular 

 supply of food and drink is daily brought and laid before it. 

 Should more than one casualty occur in a family, the same 

 ceremony is observed with respect to each corpse ; and at 

 whatever time of the year persons may happen to die in the 

 parah, all the bodies must be kept in this manner until the 

 11th of April, called by the Ecr.s;;alces Bee^wo. On that 

 <lay all the relations of the deceased assemble, and convey 

 their remains from the sheds to different funeral piles pre- 

 pared for them on a particular spot without the parah, where 

 they are burnt ; as are also the several sheds under which 

 the bodies had lain from the period of their decease. After 

 this melancholy ceremony is over, the whole party repairs 

 to the house of him in whose family the first casually "C- 

 curred in that year, and partakes of an entertainment civeii 

 by him in honour of the dead. On the following day a 

 B 3 similar 



