Harkness, Henry: A description of a singular aboriginal race inhabiting the summit of the Neilgherry Hills, or Blue Mountains of Coimbatoor, in the Southern Peninsula of India (London, 1832)

COHATAR CUSTOMS. 7«5

of the posts supporting the roof are nailed two plates of
silver, about four ringers in breadth, which seem to be a
sort of palladium ; and are, I have no doubt, considered
to mark the dwelling-place of the Deus-loci, or village
god. This opinion is strongly corroborated by the cir-
cumstance, that this pillar in particular can only be made
of a sacred kind of wood, but we could not elicit from
the Cohatars that, in their estimation, it possessed any
peculiar sanctity, and all that they would allow was, that
they considered the silver plates a necessary appendage
to the temple.

Vows and offerings are made in these temples, and
about the month of March a general festival is held, which
lasts from the new moon to the full, and when all the
offerings that had been vowed are collected.

Among these people also, the distinction exists of some
families only being competent to perform the priestly
office ; on the occasion of this festival, the man who has
been nominated to it collects the whole of the vowed
offerings, which at present generally consist in money;
each family of the village contributes a quarter of a rupee,
or as much as their means will allow them to give.

With this money he procures, generally from the low
country, different kinds of grain, sugar, and two or three
other articles, and exhibiting the whole in front of the
temple, prostrates himself towards it. This rite performed,
the different articles are delivered over in various propor-