﻿190 ACCOUNT OF THE 



chips, which they scatter in the winds, for having, 

 as they say, heen the cause of the deatli of their 

 brother. They employ much of their time in the 

 cliace, aud 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 immense 

 prize for a whole Parah. They do not remove 

 their Parahs so frequently as the Choomeeas do 

 their Chooms : the Chooweeas seldom remain lon- 

 ger than two years on the same spot; whereas 

 the Kookies are usually four or five ; and when they 

 migrate, they burn their Parah^ lest the Gyals 

 should return to it, as they are frequently known to 

 do if tiie huts are left standing. The Kookies never 

 ffo to a o'reater distance from their old ground than 

 a journey of twelve hours, unless compelled to pro- 

 ceed farther, 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 suthciency of 

 s:ood o-j-ound near the Parah on which to rear the dif- 

 ferent grains, roots, and vegetables they wish to cul- 

 tivate. They cultivate the ground as the Choomeeas 

 do, and in this, as in every other domestick occu- 

 pation, the female sex: bears the weight of the la- 

 bour, and no rank exempts them from it : the wife 

 of the chief, and the wife of his vassal, work alike 

 in the same field. 



A PROPER spot being found on the declivity of 

 ^ome hill contiguous to the Parah, the men cut 

 down the jungle upon it in the month of March, 

 and allow it to remain there until sufficiently de- 

 cayed to burn freely, when they set it on fire, and 

 thus at once perform the double purpose of clearing 

 away the rubbish, and of manurhig the ground with 

 its ablics. — The women now dig small holes, at cer- 

 tain distances, in the spot so cleared, and into each 

 hole they throw a handfid of different seeds they 



intend 



