The " Kols' of Chota-Nagpore. 175 



and sub-proprietors, and the massacre of all that the incensed Kols 

 could find. 



The Kols of Chota-Nagpore. generally a good-tempered, mild, inoffen- 

 sive race, become wild with excitement on this question, and nothing 

 can reconcile them to a decree or order which in any way infringes on 

 what they consider their proprietary right. According to their theory, 

 dispossession for generations can no more annul their right in the 

 land than it can extinguish the ties of blood. The courts will not 

 always accept this doctrine, and the Kols cannot regard as equitable 

 any decision that excludes it. 



An Oraon family lives very promiscuously in a small, indiffer- 

 ently constructed and untidy looking hut, and their village often consists 

 of a street or court of such huts. In all that relates to their inner 

 domestic life, they are less susceptible of improvement than the other 

 tribes. They have no gardens or orchards attached to individual houses, 

 but the groves of fruit-trees that they plant outside the village form a 

 beautiful feature in the scenery of Chota-Nagpore, and they have 

 generally, in and about the village, some fine trees which are common 

 property. In every Oraon village of old standing there is a house called 

 the " Doomcooreea" (Bachelor's Hall), in which all unmarried men 

 and boys of the tribe are obliged to sleep. Any one absenting himself 

 and spending the night elsewhere in the village is fined. In this 

 building the flags, musical instruments, yaks' tails, dancing equipments 

 and other property used at the festivals are kept. They have a regular 

 system of fagging in the Doomcooreea. The small boys have to 

 shampoo the limbs of their luxurious masters, and obey all orders 

 of the elders, who also systematically bully them to make them, it is 

 alleged, hardy. In some villages the unmarried girls have a 

 house to themselves, an old woman being appointed as Duenna 

 to look after them. She is always armed with a stick to keep the 

 boys off. A circular space, in front of the Doomcoorea, is kept 

 clear as the village dancing ground. It is generally sheltered by 

 fine old trees, and seats are placed all round for spectators or tired 

 dancers. 



The Doomcooreea is never used by boys of the Moondah tribe. It is an 

 , institution quite unknown to the Hos, but the Moondahs and Hos build 

 i themselves houses in which all the family can be decently accommo- 



