182 The “ Kols” of Chota-Nagpore. 
certain that he highly appreciates her. - Although he is not known 
to have for her any more eyearing epithet than “my old woman,” 
yet by no civilized race are wives treated with more consideration 
than by the untutored Ho. The whole of the domestic arrange- 
ments are under her exclusive management. She is consulted on 
all occasions, and I know one or two husbands whom I am almost 
inclined to regard as henpecked. The Kols seldom take a second 
wife during the lifetime of the first, but I know instances cf their 
having done so. The wife always cooks for her husband, and when 
the dinner is ready, they sit down and eat it together like Christians ; 
but the Oraons have followed the Hindoo custom of making the 
woman eat the leavings of her lord. 
It is customary with all these tribes to pay particular attention to 
omens, when any of them set out to arrange the preliminaries of a 
marriage. The Hos who are more under the influence of this 
superstition than their cognates or than the Oraons, have a long list 
of deterrent signs, which have been described by Tickell in his paper 
above quoted. I subjoin the most noticeable of those that are observed 
by the Oraons. 
1. On leaving the house ‘‘to win a bride’, they look out for 
omens. If acowcallsand the calf responds, it is good. If there is no 
response, the wooing is postponed or abandoned. 
2. If they find a dead mouse on the road, they must stop and 
make a diagnosis. If ants and flies have possessed themselves of the 
carcass, it is good, they go on. If the insects appear to have shunned 
it (which is not very likely to happen), they go back. 
3. It is not good to meet oxen or buffaloes with their horns 
crossed, or to see a hawk strike a bird, or to come upon women 
washing clothes. It is good to see people burying a dead body, and 
to find on their road a cow giving milk to her calf. 
4, If they see a man cutting a tree, and the tree falls before they 
can get past it, it is very bad. If they pass before it falls, it is all 
right. A certain bird heard on the left gives a note of joy ; if heard 
on the right, he is a harbinger of woe. 
5. If, on approaching the village of the girl, they come on women 
with water-pots full, it is a happy omen. If they meet a party with 
empty water-pots, it is a bad one, 
