The " Kola" 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 arc 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 

 cairying 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 

 carries 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 



