Kota

“ Mr. Swann, the collector, who has had many years' experience of Tanganyika in the old Arab days, entertained me, and gave me two Angoni spears which had been taken in the Mpeseni trouble. There are several missionaries at Kota-Kota. They have started football, and in a rash moment I was induced to play--a freak which I regretted for many days afterwards, as it brought on a sharp attack of fever.
Kota-Kota is exceedingly beautiful, as indeed is all the coast of Lake Nyassa. ”

“ Lifting up his voice he prayed Siva to take the life of Ramasarman; and this prayer the child, and the mother of the child, dumbly echoed in their hearts. Yet, in the clear, red light of dawn, the agony left Oman’s body, and his mind, exhausted with a weight too terrible to bear, grew gradually quieter. Kota and Gokarna, knowing nothing more to do, spent with weariness and emotion, returned together in silence into the house, leaving Oman alone in the half-light of early day. ”

“ An outlying village such as Kavidi has not the same Kota village as the rest of its clan. The Kidmadol, who are a branch of the Melgarsol, have not the same Kota village as the parent stock; but, on the other hand, the Panol, who now live chiefly among other Todas near Governor Shola, are still connected with the Kundah Kotas.
Each Kota village is responsible for the supply of the clan or clans with which it is connected. Its inhabitants make the various utensils used in the household and in the less sacred dairy work of the Todas. ”

“ In the Kars ceremony the Todas go on the appointed day to the Kota village, headed by a man carrying the clarified butter. Outside the village, they are met by two Kota priests whom the Todas called teupuli, who bring with them a dairy vessel of the kind the Todas call mu, which is filled with patm grain. Other Kotas follow with music. All stand outside the village, and one of the Kotas puts ten measures (kwa) of patm into the pocket of the cloak of the leading Toda, and the teupuli give the mu filled with the same grain. ”

“ May it be well; Kotas two, may it be well; fields flourish may; rain may; buffalo milk may; disease go may.
"The Todas then give the two mu containing the clarified butter to the Kota priests, and he and his companions return home. This ceremony is obviously one in which the Todas are believed to promote the prosperity of the Kotas, their crops, and their buffaloes.
"In another ceremonial relation between Todas and Kotas, the kwòdrdoni ti (sacred dairy) is especially concerned. The chief annual ceremony of the Kotas is held about January in honour of the Kota god Kambataraya. ”

“ Hushka lowered his eyes, and answered softly: “We are told that the extinction of feeling is the most desirable of all things. But, until that comes, I think it can hurt no man to rejoice at the sight of a sunrise sky.”
Their ablutions over, the two returned to the house of Gokarna, and found Kota standing in the veranda, anxiously awaiting them. She had prepared two large dishes of rice—a great luxury—and, as soon as they came up, bade them sit and eat. Oman helped his master to the fullest portion, and then ate his own from the wooden bowl in which it had been prepared. ”

“ Then Koṭā in order to obtain the youngest Princess told him how he came.
Having said, “If you are a clever person able to perform and give the works I tell you, I will give [you] the Princess in marriage,” the King ordered Koṭā to plough and give in a little time a yam enclosure of hundreds of acres.
This Koṭā, while going quickly from the old woman after having left the country, obtaining for money a pingo (carrying-stick) load of young pigs that [a man] was taking to kill, for the sake of religious merit sent them off to go into the jungle. ”

“ The Kotas speak a mixture of Tamil and Kanarese, and speak Tamil without the foreign accent which is noticeable in the case of the Badagas and Todas. According to orthodox Kota views, a settlement should consist of three streets or kēris, in one of which the Terkāran or Dēvādi, and in the other two the Munthakannāns or Pūjāris live. At Kotagiri the three streets are named Kīlkēri, Nadukēri, and Mēlkēri, or lower, central, and upper street. People belonging to the same kēri may not intermarry, as they are supposed to belong to the same family, and intermarriage would be distasteful. ”

“ Kotas, Todas, Badagas, Kurumbas, Irulas, and ‘Hindus’ come to the Kota village, where an elaborate nautch is performed, in which men are the [16] principal actors, dressed up in gaudy attire consisting of skirt, petticoat, trousers, turban and scarves, and freely decorated with jewelry, which is either their own property, or borrowed from Badagas for the occasion. Women merely dressed in clean cloths also take part in a dance called kumi, which consists of a walk round to time beaten with the hands. ”

“ I have noted one thing with great pleasure; among the apprentices, there is a boy from the kota, and consequently not a child of Blakang-Goenoeng, the wood-carving village. We have to seek out other apprentices, but this boy from the kota came of himself and asked us to take him.
The little ones here will carry on our work when we are gone. We can lead them from a distance so long as they need leading. ··········
Some one complained to us about ingratitude, among our inferiors. We told him that if he were distressed at the ingratitude of the people, it was his own fault. ”

“ They should avoid pollution, and may not attend a Toda or Badaga funeral, or approach the seclusion hut set apart for Kota women. When a vacancy in the office of Munthakannān occurs, the Kotas of the village gather together, and seek the guidance of the Terkāran, who becomes inspired by the deity, and announces the name of the successor. The selected individual has to be fed at the expense of the community for three months, during which time he may not speak to his wife or other woman direct, but only through the medium of a boy, who acts as his assistant. ”

“ Kota-lama is the village that the late Mr. Birch was stopped at by an armed force, and for some time has been harbouring the worst characters in this part of the country, and it was the intention to destroy the houses belonging to these men. ”

“ There are more impressions of more feet and a coarsely carved linga, Siva’s fecundating attribute, transformed by Muhammadan piety into the miracle working staff of a Moslim santon. Hardly greater interest is awakened by the primitive statues Kota Batu derives its appellation from, “city of stones”, which form a sort of Ruhmes Allee, lining the path from the main road to the bath-house, with many of the same pattern scattered to right and left. ”

“ The Kotas worship further Māgāli, to whose influence outbreaks of cholera are attributed, and Māriamma, who is held responsible for smallpox. When cholera breaks out among the Kota community, special sacrifices are performed with a view to propitiating the wrath of the goddess. Māgāli is represented by an upright stone in a rude temple at a little distance from Kotagiri, where an annual ceremony takes place, at which some man becomes possessed, and announces to the people that Māgāli has come. The Pūjāri offers up plantains and cocoanuts, and sacrifices a sheep and fowls. ”

“ But Kotan closed the gates in the face of his uncanny visitor, and when Gozu's honeymoon was over, he slaughtered the whole tribe of the inhospitable king, and divided his body into five sacrifices, to be offered up at the five seasons (go-sekku) . According to this legend, the pine decorations at the New Year symbolise Kotan's gate; the charcoal attached to the rice-straw rope indicates his funeral censer; the red and white mirror-cake means his flesh and bones; the seven-leafed congee typifies his seven locks of hair; the cake eaten on the third day of the month represents his ear and tongue ”

“ The Kotas receive at each funeral the bodies of the slaughtered buffaloes, and are also usually given food."
Though all classes look down on the Kotas, all are agreed that they are excellent artisans, whose services as smiths, rope and umbrella makers, etc., are indispensable to the other hill tribes. The strong, durable ropes, made out of buffalo hide, are much sought after by Badagas for fastening their cattle. The Kotas at Gudalūr have the reputation of being excellent thatchers. The Todas claim that the Kotas are a class of artisans specially brought up from the plains to work for them. ”

“ Kotaro, listen attentively to what I am going to say, like a good boy. The lady in the inner room is the wife of your father's and your mother's lord, and yours also, Kotaro. For many years we have received nothing but favours and kindness from them, therefore we owe them both a debt of great gratitude. Now, Kotaro, your father tells me that he intends to kill that good unfortunate lady, our own lord's wife—therefore, I, your mother, cannot remain alive any longer—I have decided that my spirit shall accompany her as an attendant to the other world. ”

“ Muslins are the chief articles of manufacture, but the town has no great trade, and this and the unhealthiness of the site may account for the decrease in population.
KOTAS (Kotar, Koter, Kohatur, Gauhatar) , an aboriginal tribe of the Nilgiri hills, India. They are a well-made people, of good features, tall, and of a dull copper colour, but some of them are among the fairest of the hill tribes. They recognize no caste among themselves, but are divided into keris (streets) , and a man must marry outside his keri. ”

“ The Kotas are looked down on as being unclean feeders, and eaters of carrion; a custom which is to them no more filthy than that of eating game when it is high, or using the same tooth-brush week after week, is to a European. They have been described as a very carnivorous race, who “have a great craving for flesh, and will devour animal food of every kind without any squeamish scruples as to how the animal came by its death. The carcase of a bullock which has died of disease, or the remains of a deer half devoured by a tiger, are equally acceptable to him.” ”

“ Just as the Badagas do not supply grain to the Todas only, so the Kotas do artisan work for Badagas, Kurumbas, and Irulas. The Kotas are the artisans, not of the Todas only, but of the whole hill district. ”

“ Dead lies the great Ahkoond,
The great Ahkoond of Swat
Is not!
George Thomas Lanigan.
DIRGE OF THE MOOLLA OF KOTAL, RIVAL OF THE AKHOOND OF SWAT I
Alas, unhappy land; ill-fated spot
Kotal—though where or what
On earth Kotal is, the bard has forgot;
Further than this indeed he knoweth not—
It borders upon Swat!
II
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battal-
Ions: the gloom that lay on Swat now lies
Upon Kotal,
On sad Kotal whose people ululate
For their loved Moolla late. ”

“ The musicians become especially active while the body is consuming. The other Kotas, who carry sharp sticks on which to carry away the flesh, begin to cut up the buffaloes as soon as the people have left the neighbourhood of the funeral hut. ”

“ The arts of life among the Todas are extremely simple. The fact that their agriculture is done for them by the Badagas and that all the objects they use in their daily life are made for them by the Kotas leaves them free to devote their whole attention to the care of the buffalo and the dairy. This employment has acquired so ceremonial a character that, having dealt with the ceremonies of the Todas, we find little left to consider in connexion with the regulation of the affairs of daily life. ”

“ Contradiction was unbearable to the autocrat; and in a rage he ordered his companion to break off a leaf from the banyan tree standing by, and bring it to him, so that he might put down in writing what he had to say concerning the matter under discussion between them. The leaf was brought, and the king wrote on it: "If, kotál, you have a son, and I a daughter, I will marry them to each other; but if the reverse happens, I will have you beheaded. Again, if each of us gets a male child, I will give half my kingdom to your son." Of course the kotal could not but accept the conditions. ”

“ Kostrubonko, funeral of, at Easter in Russia, iv. 261
Kot, a mythical being of New Britain, iii. 384
Kota Gadang, in Sumatra, rain-charm at, i. 308 sq.
Kotas, a tribe of Southern India, their priests not allowed to be widowers, vi. 230
Kotchène, a Chukchee chief, sacrificed in time of pestilence, i. 367 n. 1
Kotedougou, in West Africa, annual dances of disguised men at, ix. 136 n. 1
Kothluwalawa, a sacred lake of the Zuni, viii. 179
Kou or Koo, Esthonian thunder-god, ii. 367 n. 4
Koui hunters in Laos, why they hamstring game, viii. 267
Koukoura, in Elis, swinging on St. ”

“ Like the Todas, the Kotas indulge in trials of strength with heavy spherical stones, which they raise, or attempt to raise, from the ground to the shoulders, and in a game resembling tip-cat. In another game, sides are chosen, of about ten on each side. One side takes shots with a ball made of cloth at a brick propped up against a wall, near which the other side stands. Each man is allowed three shots at the brick. If it is hit and falls over, one of the ‘out-side’ picks up the ball, and throws it at the other side, who run away, and try to avoid being hit. ”

“ Kop, Kopaki, Kopek, Kopeki, 121b, 253b, a
Kor, 262a
Kora-kora, 159b
Koratchee, 276b
Korj, Korja, 255b, a
Kornish, 493b, 494a
Koromandel, 258b
Korrekorre, 160a
Κῶρυ, 238b
Kos, 262a
Koshoon, Ḳoshūn, 492a
Κόστος, 492a
Kotamo, 366b
Kotiyah, 392b
Ko-tou, Kotow, 494a, b, 492b
Kotul 494b
Kotwal, 266a
Koulam, 752a
Koulli, 250b
Kourou, 276a
Kouser, 492a ”

“ Shall I, his son, summon him?"
"King Karan," and Agnor Halit ignored Koto completely—"your word is inviolable, nor do I break promises. Yet Baron Koto is right. I can see your part—and you shall receive mine ere I take my payment. Is that satisfactory?"
"Magician," I exclaimed, impatient, "do more, and talk less! And you, Koto, let him have the thing as suits him best. I have taken his word, even as he accepts mine. Shall we quibble endlessly?"
"Yet will I do even as Baron Koto wishes," the sorcerer smiled. He laid his left hand on the back of my neck. ”