his nephew, and of a woman by her son. After the body is burnt, the ashes are made into balls and deposited in a hole at the side of the road, which is covered with a slab. Many Kóyas place a perpendicular stone about three feet high, like the head-stone of a tomb, over the slab. No pollution is observed by those attending the funeral. The beef of the animal slain at the beginning of the rites provides a feast, and the whole party returns home and makes merry. On the eighth day a pot'full of water is placed in the dead man's nouse for him to drink, and is watched by his nephew. Next morning another cow is slaughtered and the tail and a ball of cooked rice are offered to the soul at the burning-ground. Mr. Cain says that when a man passes an old friend's tombstone he will often place a little tobacco on it, remarking that the deceased liked the herb when alive and will probably be glad of it now.
The same authority states that the only conception of a future state among the Kóyas is that the dead wander about the jungle in the form oi pisáchas or ghosts. The Rev. F. W. N. Alexander however says that some of them believe that there is a heaven, a great fort full of good things to eat, and a hell in which an iron crow continually gnaws the flesh of the wicked. People who are neither good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell are born again in their former family. Children with hare-lips, moles, etc., are often identified as reincarnations of deceased relations.
Kóya villages are small and are usually inhabited solely by people of the tribe. Any outsiders live in a separate quarter. The houses are made of bamboo with a thatch of grass or palmyra. The Kóyas are very restless; and families change frequently from one village to another. Before moving, they consult the omens to see whether the change will be auspicious or not. Sometimes the hatching of a clutch of eggs provides the answer; or four grains of four kinds of seed (representing the prosperity of men, cattle, sheep and land) are put on a heap of ashes under a man's bed, any movement among them during the night being a bad omen.
Tattooing is common. It is considered very important for the soul in the next world that the body should have been adequately tattooed.
The hill Reddis (or Konda Reddis) area caste of jungle men having some characteristics in common with the Kóyas. They appear to be found only in the Rékapalle country, the hills in the north of the Pólavaram division and in Rampa, and still further north. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand
