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)

140 SACRIFICE OF A CALF.

and instantly deprived it of life. While its limbs were
still quivering, the whole party, throwing up their hands
and eyes towards heaven, repeatedly exclaimed, May it be
as an offering from—naming first one, and then the
others, of their several high places.

The waving of the leaves was then again renewed,
and the sacrificer taking off the skin, spread it out on a
layer of branches, and placing upon it all the several
pieces into which he had cut up the animal, except the
head, feet, and entrails, sprinkled them with the blood.
Others of the party had in the mean time prepared a
number of double-pointed skewers, on the one end of
which were now stuck the several pieces, while the other
was forced into the ground, and the whole were arranged
in a circle around the fire. When the flesh had become
well singed, small pieces of it were torn off, and, to-
gether with the head, thrown into the flame. A skewer
was then given to each of the party, together with a
quantity of newly-made butter, and each making his
salutation to the East, picked off a little of the meat,
rolled it up in the butter, and eat it. However, with the
exception of one old man, who seemed to relish the flesh,
and to be loath to rise so soon as the others, the eating
of the meat was evidently less to gratify the appetite,
than to comply with a needful part of the ceremony.

What remained of the offering was equally divided, for
the purpose of being sent to the different families of the