The “ Kols’”’ of Chota-Nagpore. 193 
washed and anointed with oil and turmeric, is reverently laid in the 
coffin, and all the clothes and ornaments used by the deceased are 
placed with it, and also any money that he had about him when he 
died. Then the lid of the coffin is put on and faggots piled above 
and around it, and the whole is burned. The cremation takes place 
in front of the deceased’s house. Next morning water is thrown on 
the ashes and search made for the bones; all the larger fragments are 
carefully preserved, the remainder, with the ashes, are buried then and 
there. The selected bones are placed in a vessel and hung up in the 
house in a place where they may be continually viewed by the widow 
or mother. Thus they remain till the very extensive arrangements 
necessary for the final disposal are effected. A large monumental 
stone has to be selected, and it is sometimes so large that the 
men of several villages are employed to move it. It is brought 
to the family burial place, which with the Hos is close to their 
houses, and with the Oraons generally separated from the village 
by a stream. A deep round hole is dug beside the stone, and when 
all is ready, a procession is formed consisting of one old woman 
carrying the bones on a decorated bamboo tray, one or two men 
with deep sounding wooden drums, and half a dozen young girls, 
those in the front rank carrying empty and partly broken pitchers, 
and brass vessels. The procession moves with a solemn ghostly 
sliding step, in time to the deep sounding drum. The old woman 
varries the tray on her head, but at regular intervals she slowly 
lowers it, and as she does so, the girls gently lower and mournfully 
reverse the pitchers and brass vessels, to shew that they are empty. 
In this manner the remains are taken to the house of every friend 
and relative of the deceased, within a circle of a few miles, and 
to every house in the village, and as it approaches, the inmates 
come out and mourn, as they call to mind all the good qualities of the 
deceased. The bones are thus conveyed also to all his favourite haunts, 
to the fields he cultivated, to the grove he planted, to the threshing- 
floor where he worked, and to the akrah where he made merry. When 
this part of the ceremony is completed, the procession returns to the 
village and moves in circles round the grave, gradually approaching its 
goal: at last it stops, and a quantity of rice and other food, cooked and 
uncooked, is now cast into the hole. The bones are then put into a 
