The explanation of the strips of bamboo tied in a bundle is this. A bundle was opened out for me. The bulge in the middle was due to there being in the centre of the bundle a number of small pegs cut something like a fork with one end longer than the other, by a few whacks from a jungle knife or chopper. On a certain day in the year, (known as Uchâl day in Malabar), following the death of a man, there is performed the following ceremony by the Muppans. So far as I know it is peculiar to them. A strip of bamboo is pegged out semicircularly on the ground, with three pegs such as have been described. Over this are placed some leaves of a certain tree, (which I have not, unfortunately, identified), and upon the leaves some rice and other offerings of food and liquor, if any is obtainable. These are, of course, for the benefit of the deceased. Then all the strips in the bundle are pegged out and treated in the same way. After some time the food is removed and eaten, while the new strip of bamboo with its three pegs is added to the bundle, which thus increases in size. The bundle is spoken of as Pennu mâri (ancestor people).[1] The strips of bamboo are used for men only, never for women, and for men only in the case of those whose moustaches have sprouted. It may be said that, like all the inferior races, hair grows, but never thickly, on the upper lip and on the chin a mere tuft, and never, or very, very seldom, on the cheeks. At all events, if a male has not attained manhood, indicated by the growth of some hair on his face, he is allowed no strip of bamboo, and, as in the case of the women, is given only the leaves and food.
The Muppans' hair, it may be said, is worn Malabar fashion, shaved except on the crown, where the hair is long and tied into a knot. The wilder jungle tribes of Wynaad do not observe this fashion of hairdressing. The
- ↑ The word Pennu has the same signification among the Khonds in the extreme north-east of the Madras Presidency.
