﻿154 ACCOUNT OF THE 



colour, from an infusion of the leaf of a particular 

 tree called Bangmullah, which renders it highly in- 

 toxicating*. They indulge very freely in the use of 

 both kinds, except when they go on hostile excur- 

 sions : they then rigidly abstain 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 Par ah, the corpse is 

 conveyed by the relations of the deceased, and de- 

 posited 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 guard- 

 ed 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 re- 

 spect 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 Bengalees , Beessoo. On 

 thiit day all the relations of the deceased assemble 

 and convey their remains from the sheds to dii- 

 ferent funeral piles prepared for them on a parti- 

 cular 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 casualty occurred in that year, and par- 

 takes of an entertainment given by him in honour 

 of the dead. On the following day a similar feast 

 is given by him in whose family the next casualty of 

 the season had happened ; and thus, the feast goes 

 round in succession, until one is given for each of 

 the dead. 



In this pious preservation of the dead till a cer- 

 " tain 



