MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 197 



In the seventh month of a woman's first pregnancy an apparently CHAP. IX, 

 meaningless rite is gone through, which is curious, because in it PART i. 

 the bow and arrows, now fallen into disuse, play a part, as they ethnology 

 also do at funerals. 



It is thus described by Mr. Breeks : 



" The woman's father visits the husband's hut. The husband asks 

 ' Shall I tie the tali ?' ' The father consents. The husband then 

 asks, ' Shall I give a bow ?' The father answers, ' yes.' The 

 husband makes a bow of the Hubbe shrub (Sophora cjlauca), the bark 

 serving for a string. He takes this into a shola in the afternoon, and 

 gives it to his wife, who, sitting down before a jungle tree, in the 

 stem of which a convenient hole can be found to place a small 

 earthenware lamp, asks the name of the bow, holds it a little while, 

 and then places it at the foot of the tree. Each mand has a different 

 name for the bow " 



The husband and wife remain all night in the shola. 



The ceremonies with which the Toda surrounds his dead are —Funerals, 

 strange and weird, with touches here and there full of pathos and 

 beauty. But, again, we are haunted by the thought that the ritual 

 is in places more suggestive to us than it can be to him, and that 

 memory or imagination infuse a meaning for us into forms which 

 to him are '' mamul " and nothing more. 



When a Toda is thought to be " sick unto death " he is dressed 

 in all the ornaments and jewellery of his house, and his friends' last 

 office is to give him milk to drink. ^ After death he is wrapped 

 in a new mantle, into the pockets of which a supply of grain, 

 sugar, &c., is put for his use on the road to Amnur. No coin to 

 fee the ferryman of the infernal river is placed in the mouth of 

 the dying man as is done in the case of moribund Badagas. 

 The omission seems simply to indicate the isolated position of the 

 T6da for many generations. They provide in kind for what a 

 Badaga provides in coin. There are two funeral ceremonies, 

 one, which includes the burning of the body and takes place as 

 soon as possible after death. This is called the green ^ funeral. 

 The other is celebrated some months later and may include all 

 the members of the tribe who have died during the year. It is 

 called the dry^ funeral. 



As soon as death occurs, the dead man is brought out of his —Green 

 house and laid upon a bier made of branches. On this he is ^^'^®'^'^^- 



^ Or necklace, answering to our wedding ring. 

 ^ The Phrenologist among the Tddas. 



^ Hrise Ked't. From Hdse Drav. perhaps J}as^l (?) green, soft, tender. Kedti, 

 (Tamil, Kanarese), destrnctioa, death.— Marshall. 



* Bara-K^dn— Bniro or Var, Tamil ; KanareRe and Telugn, bar, dry, parched, 

 i eterile.— Marshall. 



Mr. Breeks gives Kordzai Kedu, green funeral ; MarvendU K^dii, dry funeral, 



