Note 8 — APPENDIX I

Disposal of dead. The dead are usually disposed of by burial, but the bodies of old Bhakats are sometimes cremated, the ashes being afterwards buried under a high earth mound known as a “moidám.” On the third day after death takes place the ceremony known as telani, when the near relatives are anointed with mustard seed oil (tel). This is followed ten days later by the dahá,8 when offerings of rice, salt, betel-nuts, etc., are offered by the relatives, and finally, after an interval of twenty days, the dahá káj is celebrated, when a general feast takes place both day and night. These observances have perhaps more in common with funeral wakes than with what is known among Hindus as a shráddha; no Brahmins are present.