W. H. P. Driver —The KorJcus. 
181 
1892.] 
never completed : for the young people, after once having lived together 
under the same roof, have the upper-hand of the stern parents, who 
are only too glad to compound the matter. Should the parents not 
acquiesce, the young people elope. It is, however, always considered 
disgraceful not to propitiate the parents, and public opinion, which is a 
very strong factor among these people, is always in favour of a proper 
ceremonious marriage. 
Sundays and Fridays are considered propitious days for marriages. 
The ceremony is very like that of the Aborigines of Chota Nagpore. 
The marriage bower is erected in front of the bridegroom’s house. 
The bridegroom goes to the bride’s house, and carries her over to the 
marriage bower, when the usual ceremony of anointing, tying of cloths, 
and marching round together, is gone through. Then follows the usual 
wedding feast, which lasts late into the night. 
For five days after a birth the mother is looked upon as unclean. 
Then a fowl is sacrificed and a feast is given 
Customs regarding relations and friends. 
children. 
Children are named without ceremony after 
they are 10 or 15 days’ old. The parents are supposed to dream of some 
ancestor, after whom the child is to be named. 
Girls are tattooed on the forehead, temples, arms, and the back of 
the hand, but not on the legs or feet. 
The Korkus have no ‘ Dhamkuria ’ or bachelors’ quarters. 
They bury their dead about 4 or 5 feet below the surface of the 
t» •>. ,, __ _ ground, and put stones over the graves to pre- 
vent animals irom digging them up. A handy 
with some rice is placed on the grave, but none of the dead man’s 
belongings are put in his grave. The surviving relations wear the 
clothes and ornaments that belonged to the dead. Some time after a 
burial they erect a ‘ Munda ’ in honour of the dead. This is an upright 
post carved with figures of the sun, moon, and a horse. They offer 
sacrifices before these monuments, and dance the ‘ Siduli.’ 
The wife inherits her husband’s property, and after her the male 
children. 
The Korkus say they sometimes see the ghosts of their dead rela¬ 
tions in their dreams, and whirlwinds are supposed to be the ghosts of 
the dead flying about, but they are not mearly so superstitious as the 
aborigines of Chota Nagpore. 
They have different dances for the various seasons. During the 
‘ Fagooa ’ the men wear long grass stems in 
their pugrees, and the women leaves in their 
hair. They dance the ‘ Tewar ’ at the ‘ Pola ’ or cattle festival. At the 
Dances. 
