THINGS MADE BY MAN.
Houses are not built with a frontage towards the South-East for fear
of destruction by fire as it is known as the fire quarter (ginikona).
A lucky position of the constellations (neket) is ascertained before
the first pillar of a house is erected, before a door frame of a new
house is set or a new house is tiled, before a new house is entered
or a fire kindled or furniture taken in or before a tree is planted
or a well dug.
When several deaths take place in a dwelling house, it is
deserted. Whole villages are sometimes deserted in case of an epidemic.
The fire that is first kindled in a new house is arranged in the main
room and over it is placed a new pot full of milk resting on three
stones or three green sticks placed like a tripod. As the milk begins
to boil, pounded rice is put into it.
The goddess of fortune is said to leave a dwelling house which is
not swept and kept clean.
As a newly married couple crosses the threshold a husked cocoanut is
cut in two.
To avoid the evil eye black pots with white chunam marks and hideous
figures are placed before houses and in orchards.
When a child is born, if it be a boy a pestle is thrown from one side
of the hut to the other, if a girl an ikle broom.
All the personal belongings of a dead man are given away in
charity. Paddy is not pounded in a house where a person has died as
the spirit will be attracted by the noise.
When the daily supply of rice is being given out, if the winnowing
fan or the measure drops, it denotes that extra mouths will have to
be fed. If a person talks while the grain is being put into the pot,
it will not be well boiled.
In the field things are not called by their proper names, no sad news
is broken and a shade over the head is not permitted.
In drawing toddy from the kitul tree, (caryota urens) a knife which
has already been used is preferred to another.
If a grave be dug and then closed up to dig a second, or if a coffin
be too large for the corpse, or if the burial be on a Friday there
will soon be another death in the family.