﻿ItyZ ON THE MOUNTAINEERS 



rests, building huts, cultivating land, "making war* 

 or hunting gaine and wild beasts. Five days (they 

 never reckon by months or years) after the birth of a 

 male child, and three days after that of a female, they 

 entertain their family and kinsmen with boiled rice and 

 fermented liquor ; and the parents of the child partake 

 of the feast. They begin the ceremony with fixing a 

 pole in the court-yard; and then, killing a gayal or a 

 hog with a lance, they consecrate it to their deity ; after' 

 which all the party eat the flesh and drink liquor, 

 closing the day with dancing and with songs. If any 

 one among them be so deformed, by nature or by acci- 

 dent, as to be unfit for the propagation of his species, 

 he gives up all thought of keeping house, and begs 

 for his subsistence, like a religious mendicant, from 

 door to door, continually dancing and singing. When 

 such a person goes to the house of a rich and liberal 

 man, the owner of the house usually strings together a 

 number of white and red stones, and fixes one end of 

 the string on a long cane, so that the other end may 

 hang down to the ground ; then, paying a kind of 

 superstitious homage to the pebbles, he gives alms to 

 the beggar ; after which he kills a gayal and a hog, 

 and some other quadrupeds, and invites his tribe to 

 a feast. The giver of such an entertainment acquires 

 extraordinary fame in the nation : and all unite in 

 applauding him with every token of honour and re- 

 verence. 



When a Cud dies, all his kinsmen join in killing 

 a hog and a gayal; and, having boiled the meat, 

 pour some liquor into the mouth of the deceased, round 

 whose body they twist a piece of cloth by way of shroud. 

 All of them taste the same liquor as an offering to his 

 soul ; and this ceremony they repeat at intervals for 

 several dtiys. Then they lay the body, on a stage, and, 

 kindling a fire under it, pierce it with a spit, and 



