796 The Hodesum fimproperly called KolehanJ, [No. 104. 



They then return to the house door, and call for a light, and 

 commence searching for traces of the return of him they have been 

 invoking ; they look in silence along the ashes for the supposed mark 

 of the footstep of the spirit ; they examine the rice to see whether the 

 grains have been disturbed — the water, to detect any drops thrown 

 on the ground ; should any of these signs be discovered, it is announced 

 that the spirit is come back to the house, and they sit down apart, 

 shivering with horror, and crying bitterly, in which they are joined 

 by all without, who come and weep long and loudly, and then depart. 



The ceremony of going out and calling is persevered in till some 

 signs, or fancied signs of the return of the departed to his home have 

 been discovered. 



The relations assemble once more to settle the terms and time of 

 burying the bones. Rice is given to people to fetch a stone, as large 

 as the means of the family admit of, which is to be put over the grave. 

 Into the grave, which is two cubits broad and chest deep, and in the 

 public burial place of the village, rice is put, on this the pot of 

 bones, over this, rice, clothes, money, brass ornaments, and every thing 

 they can afford. 



The whole is then covered, and the stone or rock placed over it ; 

 on this a goat is sacrificed, and the blood and heaps of salt sprinkled 

 all over the stone, also oil is spread over the gravestones of all the 

 dead relatives who are lying around, to awaken them to receive the 

 new comer. 



They also tie a strip of cloth to a branch of the tree above the 

 gravestone, to show all passers by the quality of the cloth which 

 was buried with the bones. 



Besides the gravestone, another, a cenotaph stone, is buried up- 

 right to commemorate the name of the deceased, at the edge of the 

 village, or side of the road, and the departed spirit is supposed to 

 love to come and sit beneath its shade, when going to and from his 

 house. 



The Koles suppose the spirit to walk about in the day, and to keep 

 in the house all night, for which purpose they preserve a little space 

 clean for it, on which they place a small mechan, called ^' Tantara", 

 underneath which, in every Pooja or Purub, a small portion of the 

 sacrifice is placed. 



