176 The " Koh" of Chota-Naypore. 



dated. Their houses are more isolated, occupy much more space and 

 are in appearance much more civilized than those of the Oraons, with 

 verandahs, well raised plinths and separate apartments for the married 

 and single members of the family. Every Moondah village has its 

 dancing place, though it has no Doomcooreea. The best Korewah 

 villages consist of about forty houses built round a large square, in the 

 centre of which is the dancing arena ; but as the Korewahs are nomads, 

 changing their abodes every second or third year, their villages may 

 be regarded as mere standing camps. The Kheriahs build substantial 

 comfortable houses like the Hos. It is curious they have the same 

 word " 0" for a house and the sky. The Moondah word " Ora" is, 

 like the Turkoman " Ova," a house or tent. The flags kept in the 

 Oraon Doomcooreea appear to be an Oraon institution. Every village 

 or group of villages, probably the head quarters of each " Parha," has 

 its peculiar flag, and we have actually had cases in courts praying for 

 injunction against villages charged with having assumed flags that 

 did not belong to them ! 



I will now proceed to review the customs of the Moondahs and 

 Oraons together, taking care to note all points of divergence that are 

 known to me. 



After the birth of a child, the mother has* to undergo purification, 

 and on the same day that this ceremony takes place, which is simply a 

 process of ablution, the child is named. Elderly females or matrons, 

 friends and relations assemble for this purpose, and a vessel containing 

 water is placed in the midst, and as the name first selected is 

 pronounced, one of the women drops a grain of rice into the water. 

 If the grain of rice sinks, that name is discarded, and the experiment 

 is repeated with the second name on the list, and so on till, as the name 

 is pronounced, the grain floats. (Tho Grarrows of the eastern frontier 

 have a similar method for divining the name of the spirit they ought 

 to invoke on particular occasions.) If the name of some friend is 

 chosen, it is considered as establishing a tie between the child and his 

 namesake, resembling that which subsists between a Christian child 

 and his godfather. The person whose name is selected is always 

 called Saki or Sakhi, a word of Sanscrit origin meaning friend, so that 

 in "nam Saki" we have in meaning and sound our word namesake. 

 The following are some names of girls, Jambi, Jima ; Jingi, Turki, 





