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THE INDIAN ANTIQUABY.
[JULY, 1892.
There are no divorces. If a man's wife is carried off by another man, as frequently happens, the husband kills his rival, if he can, and takes back his wife.
There is no restriction as to the number of wives allotted to one man. If a man dies, his brother must take his wife and children. In this way one man may accumulate many families.
On a death occurring all the friends assemble and drink. A maiban, or other suitable sacrifice, is slain. The number of days the body is kept, and consequently the duration of the festivities, depends on the age and importance of the deceased. The body is eventually carried far into the jungle to a burial-ground on the ridge of a hill, where it is burnt. The charred bones are collected and, together with the clothes of the deceased, are placed in an earthen pot.
The pot is, amongst the Chinbôks and Yindus, then placed on the ground under a slab of stone supported on four upright stones. In the Chinbôk and Yindu country there are large cemeteries of these stones, some of which are of enormous size and must have taken great labour to bring from the places where they abound to the burial-ground.
The Chinbông do not use stones, but erect miniature houses, which are models of the style of architecture of the particular village to which the deceased belonged, being either raised on poles or not, as the case may be. In these houses, which form miniature villages, the pots are placed. Those Chinbôns who have emigrated to and died in Burma, are cremated where they die, but their bones are carefully collected and sent in a pot to be placed in the cemetery of the village, to which they or their forefathers originally belonged.
NOTES AND QUERIES. SOCIAL CUSTOMS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. about half a dozen peacock feathers. As snakes When a young Brahman visits or takes leave have a very acute sense of smell, and as the of an elderly man of his caste and sect, either
smell of these two things is very repugnant to in consequence of age or learning, the custom them, they will always keep away. The above is is for the younger to prostrate himself before
said to be very effective in the case of cobras. the elder and to receive his blessing.
Snake charmers in Southern India havo often In poor Brahmap houses, a widow is the chief
been seen to catch cobras with their right hand, cook and she performs almost all the menial work
while keeping a small stick in their left hand.
This stick is always besmeared with onion in the house. She gets up early in the morning and shuns the presence of everybody else in the
juice. house, as it is superstitiously believed that if any. A pinch of tobacco snuff thrown over the head body sees a widow's face on rising from his bed of a cobra acts as chloroform and the cobra he will have bad luck during the day. Even her benumbed as it were. own children, if she has any, are averse to seeing It is considered a great sin to kill a cobra. her face in the morning, and she herself, knowing
When a cobra is killed the people generally burn the evil that would arise, will not approach them.
it as they do human bodies. A man who has killed When a person starts on a journey or on any
a cobra considers himself as polluted for three special errand, if a widow comes before him, it is
days or at least for ninety hours, and in the an evil omen. On entering upon her widowhood,
second day milk is poured on the remains of the a woman takes off the hair on her head, and a
cobra. On the third day he is free from pollution. portion of her waist cloth is put round her head. She usually tuns very religious, takes only one
SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT ANIMALS IN meal a day, and sets aside all worldly pleasures.
SOUTHERN INDIA. She is also prohibited from singing on marriage The Indian screech owl or desth-bird is occasions.
held in great fear by the Hindus of Southern K. SRIKANTALIYAR. India. If this bird happens to sit on the roof
of a house and screech thrice, it is said that the SCPERSTITIONS AS TO SNAKES IN MADRAS, chief member of the house will die within one week Take half a measure full of native onions and
from that date. make about three or four dozen small bags, put If bees build a nest in any part of a house, it is half a dozen onions into each and then tie np the said that the chief member of the house will die bags at some small distance from each other to within one month from that date. the rafters under the tiles, or tie up to the rafters
K, SRIKANTALIYAR.
