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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[Avgust, 1879.
are to be found outside the Bastar territory of the village the sick man died. Fifteen days There is no connection between there and the afterwards the friends of the dead man assemKois.
bled, according to their custom, to slay and eat 82. Koi Kammaravandlu-i.e. Koi an ox belonging to the dead man's estate. But blacksmiths. These live in the Koi villages, and they were in great distress, as they feared that will eat in Koi houses, but the Kois will not eat the man had died in consequence of the want in their houses nor allow of any intermarriage. of care and skill on the part of the physician,
83. Dolivandlu or D 01011u. These and that therefore the spirit of the dead man are the chief guardians of the inferior vélpu could not approach the spirits of those who had (p. 33; cf. Vol. V. p. $59): attend the marriage died before, but must remain alone and desolate. feasts, recite old stories, &c. They live by The only remedy in such a case is to call the physialms from the Kois, as many Brahmans live by cian, and to persuade him to remove the impurity alms from Hindus. The Kois however regard attached to the departed spirit, and so enable it to them as an inferior class, and will neither eat be welcomed by the spirits of those who had before with them nor allow of any intermarriage. died. The man was sent for and came, but as The Dôlivandlu obtain their presents chiefly by the people of the village had formerly been threatening evils upon those whom they regard votaries of the goddess Ma mili, he feared lest as close fisted.
he should become a victim, and fled, but was 84. Pat tidivandlu.-These are Koi soon brought back. However, the man's friends cultivators and beggars; whenever they see a had taken alarm, and had complained to the stranger Koi or a wealthy Koi they go and fall police in Dummagudem, who soon sent and at his feet, and beg of him. Probably their brought the accused would-be sacrificers into name is derived from the Telugu pattuta, to seize Dammagadem. These then explained the whole hold of
circumstance, and assured the police that they A few weeks ago there was an outcry raised in had no intention of sacrificing any human a Koi village not very far from my bangalâ, as it being, and that when a human sacrifice had to was reported that one of its inhabitants had | be offered to Mamili, only a few of the leading been seized, and was about to be offered up to men of the village would know of it, since they the goddess Mamili (cf. vol. V. p. 359). It only would secretly seize a stranger, kill him in appears that this man, a Koi, professed to be the night, sprinkle the blood on the image, and a physician, and had been called some fortnight bury the corpse before any one knew anything previous to attend to a patient living in a village of the sacrifice. The native clergy man here six miles away, where there is a stamp supposed pointed out to them that as long as they kept to represent the goddess Mamili. After a the image in their village, such suspicions were careful examination of the sick man the doctor likely to arise, and, strange to say, they offered pronounced the disease to have arisen through to destroy it in his presence if he would go to the evil influence of some enemy, and that in their village. As a rule, the Kois, when they consequence the patient's stomach was full of are not satisfied as to the cause of the death of tin which it was impossible to remove, and that one of their friends, continue to meet at intervals there were no hopes whatever of his recovery. for a whole year, sacrifice and eat one or more The friends of the sick man, however, placed oxen, and enquire diligently of the reputed physifull faith in the physician's powers, and begged cians in their midst whether the spirit of their him to use his healing powers to the utmost lost friend has joined the spirits of his predeFowls, sara (strong liquor), benzoin, turmeric, cessors. When they obtain a satisfactory assuretc. were brought; the fowls slain, and the ance of the spirit's happiness, then they disconblood smeared over the sick man's face. Then tinue these sacrificial feasts. all present (except the invalid) set to work to A fortnight ago, when in the Rekapalli feast upon the fowls and the liquor, after which talaqa I saw some of the tombstones which the turmeric was made into small balls and well many Kois' erect, but which the Kois rubbed over the face and body of the patient, around Dummagudem have left off using. and then the medicine man departed. Un. After the corpse is burnt, the ashes are fortunately, before he had crossed the boundary wetted and rolled up into small balls, and
