Vishnu was so astonished at the request of the blind man, which combined riches, issue, and the restorationof his eyesight in one demand, that he granted all his desires.The Kōmati and the Thief.An old Kōmati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police.The Kōmati and his Cakes.A Kōmati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Kōmati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Kōmati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied “Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?” and passed on. The unsuspecting Kōmati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves.The Kōmati and the Scorpion.A number of Kōmatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vināyakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Kōmati remarked “Whata fine smell! I have never experienced the like.” This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other.The Kōmati and the Milk Tax.Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Kōmatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. “A pie for a pie” said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax.The Kōmati and the Pāndyan King.Once upon a time, a Pāndyan King had a silver vessel of enormous size made for the use of the palace, and superstitiously believed that its first contents should not be of an ordinary kind. So he ordered his minister to publish abroad that all his subjects were to put into the vessel a chembu-full of milk from each house. The frugal Kōmatis, hearing of this, thought, each to himself, that, as the king had ordered such a large quantity, and others would bring milk, it would suffice if they took a chembu-full of water, as a little water poured into such a large quantity of milk would not change its colour, and it would not be known that they only contributed water. All the Kōmatis accordingly each brought a chembu-full of water, and none of them told the others of the trick he was about to play. But it so happened that the Kōmatis were the first to enter the palace, while theythought that the people of other castes had come and gone. The vessel was placed behind a screen, so that no one might cast the evil eye on it, and the Kōmatis were let in one by one. This they did in all haste, and left with great joy at the success of their trick. Thus there was nothing but water in the vessel. Now it had been arranged that the king was to be the first person to see the contents of his new vessel, and he was thunderstruck to find that it contained only water. He ordered his minister to punish the Kōmatis severely. But the ready-witted Kōmatis came forward, and said “Oh! gracious King, appease thy anger, and kindly listen to what we have to say. We each brought a chembu-full of water, to find out how much the precious vessel will hold. Now that we have taken the measurement, we will forthwith fetch the quantity of milk required.” The king was exceedingly pleased, and sent them away.A story is told to the effect that, when a Kōmati was asked to identify a horse about which a Muhammadan and Hindu were quarrelling, he said that the fore-part looked like the Muhammadan’s, and the hind-part like the Hindu’s. Another story is told of a Kōmati, who when asked by a Judge what he knew about a fight between two men, deposed that he saw them standing in front of each other and speaking in angry tones when a dust-storm arose. He shut his eyes, and the sound of blows reached his ears, but he could not say which of the men beat the other.Of proverbs relating to the Kōmatis, the following may be noted:—A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.The Kōmatis are satirically named Dhaniyāla jāti, or coriander caste, because, as the coriander seed has to be crushed before it is sown, so the Kōmati is supposed to come to terms only by rough treatment.The Kōmatis have the title Setti or Chetti, which is said to be a contracted form of Srēshti, meaning a precious person. In recent times, some of them have assumed the title Ayya.Kombara.—The name, meaning a cap made of the spathe of the areca palm (Areca Catechu) of an exogamous sept of Kelasi. Such caps are worn by various classes in South Canara,e.g., the Holeyas and Koragas.Kombu(stick).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.Komma.—Komma (a musical horn) or Kommula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Māla. Kommula is further a professional title for horn-blowers, mainly Māla, Mādiga, and Panisavan, who perform at festivals and funerals.Kommi.—A gōtra of Gollas, the members of which may not use kommi fuel.Kompala(houses).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Kōnān.—Kōnān or Kōnār is a title of Idaiyans. Some Gollas call themselves Kōnānulu.Kōnangi(buffoon).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Konda(mountain).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Mēdara, and a synonym for Konda Dora.Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152“Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at themercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him asadscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”In the Census Report, 1891, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes that “these people all speak Telugu, and the majority of them have returned that as their parent-tongue. But a large number returned their caste name in the parent-tongue column. I have since received a vocabulary, which is said to be taken from the dialect of the Konda Doras; and, if this is correct, then the real speech of these people is a dialect of Khond.” One Durgi Pātro, the head of a mutta (division of a Zemindari) informed Mr. G. F. Paddison that Konda Doras and Khonds areidentical. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis states that the Konda Doras “seem to be a section of the Khonds, which has largely taken to speaking Telugu, has adopted some of the Telugu customs, and is in the transitional stage between Animism and Hinduism. They call themselves Hindus, and worship the Pāndavas and a goddess called Talupulamma. They drink alcohol, and eat pork, mutton, etc., and will dine with Kāpus.” At times of census, Pāndavakulam (or Pāndava caste) has been returned as a title of the Konda Doras.For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. There are, among the Konda Doras, two well-defined divisions, called Pedda (big) and Chinna (little) Kondalu. Of these, the former have remained in their old semi-independent position, while the latter have come under Telugu domination. The Chinna Kondalu, who have been living in contact with the Bhaktha caste, have adopted the Telugu system of intipērulu, as exogamous septs, whereas the Pedda Kondalu have retained the totem divisions, which occur among other hill castes,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Bhāg (tiger), and Kochchimo (tortoise). Among the Chinna Kondalu, the custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed, and may further marry his own sister’s daughter. The Chinna Kondalu women wear glass bangles and beads, like women of the plains. Men of the Chinna Kondalu section serve as bearers and Government employees, whereas those of the Pedda Kondalu section are engaged in cultivation. The former have personal names corresponding to those of the inhabitants of the plains,e.g., Linganna, Gangamma, while the names of the latter are taken from the day of the week on whichthey were born,e.g., Bhudra (Wednesday), Sukra (Friday).Among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a marriage is decided on, the girl’s parents receive a present (vōli) of four rupees and a female cloth. On an auspicious day fixed by the Chukkamusti (star-gazer), the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom. The contracting couple are bathed in turmeric-water, put on new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law, and wrist-threads are tied on their wrists. On the same day, or the following morning, at a time settled by the Chukkamusti, the bridegroom, under the direction of a caste elder, ties the sathamānam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck. On the following day, the wrist-threads are removed, and the newly married couple bathe.Among the Pedda, as among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a man contemplates taking a wife, his parents carry three pots of liquor to the home of the girl whose hand he seeks. The acceptance of these by her father is a sign that the match is agreeable to him, and a jholla tonka (bride-price) of five rupees is paid to him. The future bridegroom’s party has to give three feasts to that of the bride-elect, for each of which a pig is killed. The girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and, if she has reached puberty, remains there. Otherwise she returns home, and joins her husband later on, the occasion being celebrated by a further feast of pork.Both sections allow the remarriage of widows. Among the Pedda Kondalu, a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. By both sections divorce is permitted. Among the Chinna Kondalus, a man who marries a divorcée has to pay her first husband twenty-fourrupees, of which half is divided among the neighbouring caste villages in certain recognised proportions.The dead are usually burnt by both sections. The Pedda Kondalu kill a pig on the third day, and hold a feast, at which much liquor is disposed of. By the Chinna Kondalu the chinna rōzu (little day) ceremony is observed, as it is by other castes dwelling in the plains.The Chinna Kondalu bear the titles Anna or Ayya when they are merely cultivators under Bhaktha landlords, and Dora under other circumstances. The Pedda Kondalu usually have no title.A riot took place, in 1900, at the village of Korravanivalasa in the Vizagapatam district, under the following strange circumstances. “A Konda Dora of this place, named Korra Mallayya, pretended that he was inspired, and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people from various parts of the agency. At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pāndava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that, to effect this, he would arm his followers with bamboos, which should be turned by magic into guns, and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut, and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these, the camp was drilled by the Swāmi (god), as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Pāchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them, and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but, owing to the threateningattitude of the Swāmi’s followers, had to abandon the attempt. The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Pārvatipur, and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the Swāmi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob, and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested, and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting, and three, including the Swāmi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the Swāmi died in jail, and the other two were hanged. The Swāmi’s infant son, the god Krishna, also died, and all trouble ended at once and completely.”Concerning the Konda Kāpus or Konda Reddis of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.153“The hill Reddis, or Konda Reddis, are a caste of jungle men, having some characteristics in common with the Kōyas. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand them; but it is said that some of them speak Kōya. They are of slighter build than the Kōyas, and their villages are even smaller. They will not eat in the house of a Kōya. They call themselves by various high-sounding titles, such as Pāndava Reddis, Rāja Reddis, and Reddis of the solar race (Sūryavamsa), and do not like the plain name of Konda Reddi. They recognize no endogamous sub-divisions, but have exogamous septs. In character they resemble the Kōyas, but are less simple and stupid, and in former years were much given to crime. They live by shifting cultivation. They do not touch beef, but will eat pork. They profess to be both Saivites and Vaishnavites, and occasionally employBrāhman priests at their funerals; and yet they worship the Pāndavas, the spirits of the hills (or, as they call them, the sons of Rācha), their ancestors including women who have died before their husbands, and the deity Muthyālamma and her brother Pōturāzu, Sāralamma, and Unamalamma. The last three are found in nearly every village. Other deities are Doddiganga, who is the protector of cattle, and is worshipped when the herds are driven into the forests to graze, and Dēsaganga (or Paraganga), who takes the place of the Maridamma of the plains, and the Muthyālamma of the Kōyas as goddess of cholera and small-pox. The shrine of Sāralamma of Pedakonda, eight miles east of Rēkapalle, is a place of pilgrimage, and so is Bison Hill (Pāpikonda), where an important Reddi festival is held every seven or eight years in honour of the Pāndava brothers, and a huge fat pig, fattened for the occasion, is killed and eaten. The Reddis, like the Kōyas, also observe the harvest festivals. They are very superstitious, believing firmly in sorcery, and calling in wizards in time of illness. Their villages are formed into groups like those of the Kōyas, and the hereditary headmen over these are called by different names, such as Dora, Mūttadar, Varnapedda, and Kulapatradu. Headmen of villages are known as Pettadars. They recognise, though they do not frequently practice, marriage by capture. If a parent wishes to show his dislike for a match, he absents himself when the suitor’s party calls, and sends a bundle of cold rice after them when they have departed. Children are buried. Vaishnavite Reddis burn their adult dead, while the Saivites bury them. Sātānis officiate as priests to the former, and Jangams to the latter. The pyre is kindled by the eldest male of the family, and a feast is held on the fifth day after thefuneral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families.”Kondaikatti.—The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, meaning those who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the partially shaved head.Kondaita.—A sub-division of Doluva.Kondaiyamkottai.—A sub-division of Maravan.Kondalar.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste of Vellāla. Kondalam means women’s hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.Kondh.—In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902–3, Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that “the Khonds inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, amountain. The number of sub-divisions returned is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond.”In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.154“The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Kōī dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficultyin understanding the Kui spoken in other parts. There are two principal dialects, one eastern, spoken in Gumsur and the adjoining parts of Bengal, and one western, spoken in Chinna Kimedi. In the north, Kui has come under the influence of the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech, and a specimen forwarded from the Patna State was written in Oriyā with a slight admixture of Chattisgarhī. The number of Kandhs returned at the census of 1891 was 627,388. The language returns, however, give a much smaller figure. The reason is that many Kandhs have abandoned their native speech.”It has been noted that “the character of the Khonds varies as much as their language. Where there has been much contact with the plains, it is not as favourable as elsewhere. As a rule, they may be taken to be a bold, and fitfully laborious mountain peasantry of simple, but not undignified manners; upright in their conduct; sincere in their superstitions; proud of their position as landholders; and tenacious of their rights. The Linepada Khonds affect manners like Uriyas, and, among other things, will not eat pork (the flesh of wild pigs excepted). The Khond villages have quite the appearance of Uriya villages, the houses are built with mud walls, a thing unknown with Khonds in other parts of the Māliahs; and there is also much neat garden cultivation, which is rare elsewhere, probably because the produce thereof would be appropriated by the Uriyas. In 1902, the Linepada Muttah (settlement) presented the unusual spectacle of a Khond ruler as Dolabēhara, as well as Moliko, with the Uriya Paiks really at his beck and call. In some places, the most valuable portions of the land have passed into the possession of Sondis and low-country sowcars (money-lenders), who have pandered to the Khonds by advancing them money, the greaterportion of which has been expended in drink, the repayment being exacted in land. Except in the Goomsur Māliahs, paddy (rice) cultivation is not extensively carried on by the Khonds; elsewhere it is chiefly in the hands of the Uriyas. The Khonds take little trouble in raising their crops. The result is that, except in the Goomsur Māliahs, where they grow crops to sell in the market for profit, we find a poverty-stricken race, possessing hardly any agricultural stock, and no signs of affluence. In Kimedi, however, they are beginning to follow the example of Goomsur, and doubtless their material prosperity would much increase if some check could be devised to save them from the Uriyas and Sondis, who are steadily acquiring all the wet land, and utilising the Khonds merely as cultivators.”It is noted by Mr. F. Fawcett (1902)155that “up to within fifteen years ago, the Khônds of the Ganjam hills would not engage in any ordinary labour. They would not, for example, carry even the smallest article of the district officer’s luggage. Elephants were accordingly provided by Government for carriage of tents and all camp luggage. But there has come a change, and, within the last ten years or so, the Khônds have taken to work in the ordinary way. Within the last few years, for the first time, the Khônds have been emigrating to Assam, to work in the tea-gardens. Accurate figures are not available, but the estimate of the best authority gives the number as about 3,000. This emigration is now stopped by edict. Of course, they do not set out, and go of their own accord. They are taken. The strange thing is that they go willingly.” It was enacted, in an order of Government, in 1901,156that “inexercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam.”In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.157The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in,e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. Thequestion arises as to how the Khonds should be repaid for their labour. Money is of little use to them in this out-of-the-way part of the country, and, if they got it, they would probably go to Surada to get drunk on it. It would be better to pay them in food-grain and cloths, and for this purpose departmental shops, and a regular system of accounts, such as are in force among the Chenchus in Kurnool, would be necessary.In the course of a lament over the change which has come over the Kondhs who live in the range of hills near Berhampore, Mr. S. P. Rice writes as follows.158“Here they live in seclusion and in freedom, but also in the lowest depths of squalor and poverty. Once they loved gay colours. True Khond dresses, both male and female, are full of stripes and patterns, in blue, yellow, and red. Where has gone the love of colour? Instead of the long waistcloth ending in tails of blue and red, the man binds about him a wretched rag that can hardly be called a garment. Once the women took a delight in decking themselves with flowers, and a pride in the silver ornaments that jangled on their naked breasts. Where are now the grasses that adorned them, and the innocence that allowed them to go clothed only to the waist? Gone! withered by the blast of the breath of a ‘superior civilization.’ Gone are the hairpins of sāmbur bone—an inestimable treasure in the eyes of the true hill Khond. Gone are the floral decorations, and the fantastic head-dresses, which are the pride of the mountain tribes. In dull, unromantic squalor our Khond lives, moves, and has his being; arid, ever as he moves, is heard the clanking upon his wrists of the fetters of his debt. Yet for all that he is happy.” The hairpinsreferred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins.The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.159“The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature—two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminaliafruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generallyfor salt. [Honey and wax are said to be collected by the Kondhs and Benias, who are expert climbers of precipitous rocks and lofty trees. The Kondhs recognise four different kinds of bees, known by the following Oriya names:—(a) bhaga mohu, a large-sized bee (Apis dorsata); (b) sattapuri mohu, building its comb in seven layers (Apis indica); (c) binchina mohu, with a comb like a fan; (d) nikiti mohu, a very small bee.]160Wet paddy is, of course, grown in the valleys and low-lying bottoms, where water is available, and much ingenuity is exercised in the formation of bunds (embankments) to retain the natural supply of moisture. The Khond has a dead eye for a natural level; it is surprising how speedily a seemingly impracticable tract of jungle will be converted into paddy fields by a laborious process of levelling by means of a flat board attached to a pair of buffaloes. The chief feature of the dry cultivation is the destructive practice of kumeri. A strip of forest, primeval, if possible, as being more fertile, is burnt, cultivated, and then deserted for a term of years, which may vary from three to thirty, according to the density or otherwise of the population. The Kutiah Khonds are the chief offenders in respect of kumeri, to which they confine themselves, as they have no ploughs or agricultural cattle. In the rare instances when they grow a little rice, the fields are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children, assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.“The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is bound round the loins,with Tartan ends which hang down in front and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate, and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak, which, with an arrangement of ‘bison’ horns and peacock’s feathers, is supposed to strike awe into the beholder’s mind. Khond women wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck and bosom being left bare. Pāno females generally wear an upper cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed, concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements) varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Māliahs, the use of glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam Māliahs has been described as follows.161“He centres his great love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully pinned over the left eyebrow. Thisknot he decorates according to his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller,Coracias indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front, while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in a sāl (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth, bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain places, he very frequently carries a bow and arrows, the former made of bent bamboo, the string of a long strip of bark, and the handle ornamented with stripes of the white quills of the peacock.]“The Khonds are very keen in the pursuit of game, for which the hot weather is the appointed time, and, during this period, a sambar or ‘bison’ has but little chance of escape if once wounded by an arrow, as they stick to the trail like sleuth hounds, and appear insensible to distance or fatigue. The arms they carry are the bow, arrows, and tangi, a species of light battle-axe that inflicts a serious wound. The women are not addicted to drink, but the males are universally attached to liquor, especially during the hot weather, when the sago palm (solopo:Caryota urens) is in full flow. They often run up sheds in the jungle, near especially good trees, and drink for days together. A great many deaths occur at this season by falls from trees when tapping the liquor.Feasts and sacrifices are occasions for drinking to excess, and the latter especially are often scenes of wild intoxication, the liquor used being either mohwa, or a species of strong beer brewed from rice or koeri. Khond women, when once married, appear to keep pretty straight, but there is a good deal of quiet immorality among the young men and girls, especially during the commencement of the hot weather, when parties are made up for fishing or the collection of mohwa fruit and other jungle berries. At the same time, a certain sense of shame exists, as instances are not at all uncommon of double suicide, when a pair of too ardent lovers are blown upon, and theirliaisonis discovered.“The generality of Khond and Pâno houses are constructed of broad sâl logs hewn out with the axe, and thatched with jungle grass, which is impervious to white-ants. In bamboo jungles, bamboo is substituted for sâl. The Khond houses are substantially built but very low, the pitch of the roof never exceeding 8 feet, and the eaves being only about 4 feet from the ground, the object being to ensure resistance to the violent storms that prevail during the monsoons.“Intermarriage between Khonds, Pânos, and Uriyas is not recognised, but cases do occur when a Pâno induces a Khond woman to go off with him. She may live with him as his wife, but no ceremony takes place. If a Pâno commits adultery with a Khond married woman, he has to pay a paronjo, or a fine of a buffalo, to the husband who retains his wife, and in addition a goat, a pig, a basket of paddy, a rupee, and a cavady (shoulder-pole) load of pots. If the adulterer is a Khond, he gets off with payment of the buffalo, which is slaughtered for the entertainment of the village. The husband retains his wife in this case, as also if he findsher pregnant when first she comes to him; this is not an uncommon incident. Divorce of the wife on the husband’s part is thus very rare, if it occurs at all, but cases are not unknown where the wife divorces her husband, and adopts a fresh alliance. When this takes place, her father has to return the whole of the gifts known as gontis, which the bridegroom paid for his wife when the marriage was originally arranged.”In a note on the tribes of the Agency tracts of the Vizagapatam district, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows.162“Of these, by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are about 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature, and who are so prominent in Ganjam, but a series of communities descended from them, which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors, according to the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria (jungle) Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak tāluk, the Dēsya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nimgiris, and the Kuttiya (hill) Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur tāluk. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system (separatehut for unmarried girls to sleep in) prevails among them in its simplest form, and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practiced to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.163The dress of the civilised Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These civilised Khonds worship all degrees of deities, from their own tribal Jākara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugu; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the intipērulu of the plains.”There is a tradition that, in olden days, four Kondhs, named Kasi, Mendora, Bolti, and Bolo, with eyes the size of brass pots, teeth like axe-heads, and ears like elephant’s ears, brought their ancestor Mandia Pātro from Jorasingi in Boad, and gave him and his children authority all over the country now comprised in Mahasingi, and in Kurtilli Barakhumma, Bodogodo, Balliguda, and Pussangia, on condition of settling their disputes, and aiding them in their rights. The following legendary account of the origin of the Kondhs is given by Mr. A. B. Jayaram Moodaliar. Once upon a time, the ground was all wet, and there were only two females on the earth, named Karaboodi and Tharthaboodi, each of whom was blessed with a single male child. The namesof the children were Kasarodi and Singarodi. All these individuals sprang from the interior of the earth, together with two small plants called nangakoocha and badokoocha, on which they depended for subsistence. One day, when Karaboodi was cutting these plants for cooking, she accidentally cut the little finger of her left hand, and the blood dropped on the ground. Instantly, the wet soft earth on which it fell became dry and hard. The woman then cooked the food, and gave some of it to her son, who asked her why it tasted so much sweeter than usual. She replied that she might have a dream that night, and, if so, would let him know. Next morning, the woman told him that, if he would act on her advice, he would prosper in this world, that he was not to think of her as his mother, and was to cut away the flesh of her back, dig several holes in the ground, bury the flesh, and cover the holes with stones. This her son did, and the rest of the body was cremated. The wet soil dried up and became hard, and all kinds of animals and trees came into existence. A partridge scratched the ground with its feet, and rāgi (millet), maize, dhāl (pea), and rice sprung forth from it. The two brothers argued that, as the sacrifice of their mother brought forth such abundance, they must sacrifice their brothers, sisters, and others, once a year in future.A god, by name Boora Panoo, came, with his wife and children, to Tharthaboodi and the two young men, to whom Boora Panoo’s daughters were married. They begat children, who were divided equally between Boora Panoo the grandfather and their fathers. Tharthaboodi objected to this division on the grounds that Boora Panoo’s son would stand in the relation of Mamoo to the children of Kasarodi and Singarodi; that, if the child was a female, when she got married, she would have to give a rupee to her Mamoo;and that, if it was a male that Boora Panoo’s daughter brought forth, the boy when he grew up would have to give the head of any animal he shot to Mamoo (Boora Panoo’s son). Then Boora Panoo built a house, and Kasarodi and Singarodi built two houses. All lived happily for two years. Then Karaboodi appeared in a dream, and told Kasarodi and Singarodi that, if they offered another human victim, their lands would be very fertile, and their cattle could flourish. In the absence of a suitable being, they sacrificed a monkey. Then Karaboodi appeared once more, and said that she was not pleased with the substitution of the monkey, and that a human being must be sacrificed. The two men, with their eight children, sought for a victim for twelve years. At the end of that time, they found a poor man, who had a son four years old, and found him, his wife and child good food, clothing, and shelter for a year. They then asked permission to sacrifice the son in return for their kindness, and the father gave his assent. The boy was fettered and handcuffed to prevent his running away, and taken good care of. Liquor was prepared from grains, and a bamboo, with a flag hoisted on it, planted in the ground. Next day, a pig was sacrificed near this post, and a feast was held. It was proclaimed that the boy would be tied to a post on the following day, and sacrificed on the third day. On the night previous to the sacrifice, the Janni (priest) took a reed, and poked it into the ground in several places. When it entered to a depth of about eight inches, it was believed that the god and goddess Tadapanoo and Dasapanoo were there. Round this spot, seven pieces of wood were arranged lengthways and crossways, and an egg was placed in the centre of the structure. The Khonds arrived from the various villages, and indulged in drink. The boy was teased,and told that he had been sold to them, that his sorrow would affect his parents only, and that he was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the people. He was conducted to the spot where the god and goddess had been found, tied with ropes, and held fast by the Khonds. He was made to lie on his stomach on the wooden structure, and held there. Pieces of flesh were removed from his back, arms and legs, and portions thereof buried at the Khond’s place of worship. Portions were also set up near a well of drinking water, and placed around the villages. The remainder of the sacrificed corpse was cremated on a pyre set alight with fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. On the following day, a buffalo was sacrificed, and a feast partaken of. Next day, the bamboo post was removed outside the village, and a fowl and eggs were offered to the deity. The following stanza is still recited by the Janni at the buffalo sacrifice, which has been substituted for that of a human victim:—Oh! come, male slave; come, female slave. What do you say? What do you call out for? You have been brought, ensnared by the Haddi. You have been called, ensnared by the Domba. What can I do, even if you are my child? You are sold for a pot of food.The ethnological section of the Madras Museum received a few years ago a very interesting relic in the shape of a human (Meriah) sacrifice post from Baligudu in Ganjam. This post, which was fast being reduced to a mere shell by white-ants, is, I believe, the only one now in existence. It was brought by Colonel Pickance, who was Assistant Superintendent of Police, and set up in the ground near the gate of the reserve Police barracks. The veteran members of a party of Kondhs, who were brought to Madras for the purpose of performing beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales in 1906, became wildly excited when they came across this relic of their former barbarous custom.“The best known case,” Mr. Frazer writes,164“of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by British officers, who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops, and immunity from all diseases and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim, a Meriah, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim, that is the son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian.”In 1837, Mr. Russell, in a report on the districts entrusted to his control, wrote as follows.165“The ceremonies attending the barbarous rite, and still more the mode of destroying life, vary in different parts of the country. In the Māliahs of Goomsur, the sacrifice is offered annually to Thadha Pennoo (the earth) under the effigy of a bird intended to represent a peacock, with the view of propitiating the deity to grant favourable seasons and crops. The ceremony is performed at the expense of, and in rotation by, certain mootahs (settlements) composing a community, and connected together from local circumstances. Besides these periodical sacrifices,others are made by single mootahs, and even by individuals, to avert any threatening calamity from sickness, murrain, or other cause. Grown men are the most esteemed (as victims), because the most costly. Children are purchased, and reared for years with the family of the person who ultimately devotes them to a cruel death, when circumstances are supposed to demand a sacrifice at his hands. They seem to be treated with kindness, and, if young, are kept under no constraint; but, when old enough to be sensible of the fate which awaits them, they are placed in fetters and guarded. Most of those who were rescued had been sold by their parents or nearest relations, a practice which, from all we could learn, is very common. Persons of riper age are kidnapped by wretches who trade in human flesh. The victim must always be purchased. Criminals, or prisoners captured in war, are not considered fitting subjects. The price is paid indifferently in brass utensils, cattle or corn. The Zanee (or priest), who may be of any caste, officiates at the sacrifice, but he performs the poojah (offering of flowers, incense, etc.) to the idol through the medium of the Toomba, who must be a Khond child under seven years of age. This child is fed and clothed at the public expense, eats with no other person, and is subjected to no act deemed impure. For a month prior to the sacrifice, there is much feasting and intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah, who is adorned with garlands, etc., and, on the day before the performance of the barbarous rite, is stupefied with toddy, and made to sit, or, if necessary, is bound at the bottom of a post bearing the effigy above described. The assembled multitude then dance around to music, and addressing the earth, say: ‘Oh! God, we offer the sacrifice to you. Give us good crops, seasons, and health.’ After which they addressthe victim, ‘We bought you with a price, and did not seize you. Now we sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.’ On the following day, the victim being again intoxicated and anointed with oil, each individual present touches the anointed part, and wipes the oil on his own head. All then proceed in procession around the village and its boundaries, preceded by music, bearing the victim and a pole, to the top of which is attached a tuft of peacock’s feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the village deity called Zakaree Pennoo, and represented by three stones, near which the brass effigy in the shape of a peacock is buried, they kill a hog in sacrifice and, having allowed the blood to flow into a pit prepared for the purpose, the victim, who, if it has been found possible, has been previously made senseless from intoxication, is seized and thrown in, and his face pressed down until he is suffocated in the bloody mire amid the noise of instruments. The Zanee then cuts a piece of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth. All the rest afterwards go through the same form, and carry the bloody prize to their villages, where the same rites are performed, part being interred near the village idol, and little bits on the boundaries. The head and face remain untouched, and the bones, when bare, are buried with them in the pit. After this horrid ceremony has been completed, a buffalo calf is brought in front of the post, and, his forefeet having been cut off, is left there till the following day. Women, dressed in male attire and armed as men, then drink, dance and sing round the spot, the calf is killed and eaten, and the Zanee is dismissed with a present of rice and a hog or calf.”In the same year, Mr. Arbuthnot, Collector of Vizagapatam, reported as follows. “Of the hill tribe Codooloo, there are said to be two distinct classes, the Cotia Codooloo and Jathapoo Codooloo. The former class is that which is in the habit of offering human sacrifices to the god called Jenkery, with a view to secure good crops. This ceremony is generally performed on the Sunday preceding or following the Pongal feast. The victim is seldom carried by force, but procured by purchase, and there is a fixed price for each person, which consists of forty articles such as a bullock, a male buffalo, a cow, a goat, a piece of cloth, a silk cloth, a brass pot, a large plate, a bunch of plantains, etc. The man who is destined for the sacrifice is carried before the god, and a small quantity of rice coloured with saffron (turmeric) is put upon his head. The influence of this is said to prevent his attempting to escape, even though set at liberty. It would appear, however, that, from the moment of his seizure till he is sacrificed, he is kept in a continued state of stupefaction or intoxication. He is allowed to wander about the village, to eat and drink anything he may take a fancy to, and even to have connection with any of the women whom he may meet. On the morning set apart for the sacrifice, he is carried before the idol in a state of intoxication. One of the villagers acts as priest, who cuts a small hole in the stomach of the victim, and with the blood that flows from the wound the idol is smeared. Then the crowds from the neighbouring villages rush forward, and he is literally cut into pieces. Each person who is so fortunate as to procure it carries away a morsel of the flesh, and presents it to the idol of his own village.”Concerning a method of sacrifice, which is illustrated by the post preserved in the Madras Museum, ColonelCampbell records166that “one of the most common ways of offering the sacrifice in Chinna Kimedi is to the effigy of an elephant (hatti mundo or elephant’s head) rudely carved in wood, fixed on the top of a stout post, on which it is made to revolve. After the performance of the usual ceremonies, the intended victim is fastened to the proboscis of the elephant, and, amidst the shouts and yells of the excited multitude of Khonds, is rapidly whirled round, when, at a given signal by the officiating Zanee or priest, the crowd rush in, seize the Meriah, and with their knives cut the flesh off the shrieking wretch as long as life remains. He is then cut down, the skeleton burnt, and the horrid orgies are over. In several villages I counted as many as fourteen effigies of elephants, which had been used in former sacrifices. These I caused to be overthrown by the baggage elephants attached to my camp in the presence of the assembled Khonds, to show them that these venerated objects had no power against the living animal, and to remove all vestiges of their bloody superstition.” In another report, Colonel Campbell describes how the miserable victim is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half intoxicated Khonds, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piecemeal from the bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt, and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.” Yet again, he describes a sacrifice which was peculiar to the Khonds of Jeypore. “It is,” he writes, “always succeeded by the sacrifice of three human beings, two to the sun to the east and west of the village, and one in the centre,with the usual barbarities of the Meriah. A stout wooden post about six feet long is firmly fixed in the ground, at the foot of it a narrow grave is dug, and to the top of the post the victim is firmly fastened by the long hair of his head. Four assistants hold his outstretched arms and legs, the body being suspended horizontally over the grave, with the face towards the earth. The officiating Junna or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation, at intervals hacking with his sacrificial knife the back part of the shrieking victim’s neck. ‘O! mighty Manicksoro, this is your festal day. To the Khonds the offering is Meriah, to kings Junna. On account of this sacrifice, you have given to kings kingdoms, guns and swords. The sacrifice we now offer you must eat, and we pray that our battle-axes may be converted into swords, our bows and arrows into gunpowder and balls; and, if we have any quarrels with other tribes, give us the victory. Preserve us from the tyranny of kings and their officers.’ Then, addressing the victim:—‘That we may enjoy prosperity, we offer you a sacrifice to our God Manicksoro, who will immediately eat you, so be not grieved at our slaying you. Your parents were aware, when we purchased you from them for sixty rupees, that we did so with intent to sacrifice you. There is, therefore, no sin on our heads, but on your parents. After you are dead, we shall perform your obsequies.’ The victim is then decapitated, the body thrown into the grave, and the head left suspended from the post till devoured by wild beasts. The knife remains fastened to the post till the three sacrifices have been performed, when it is removed with much ceremony. In an account by Captain Mac Viccar of the sacrifice as carried out at Eaji Deso, it is stated that on the day of sacrifice the Meriah is surrounded by the Khonds, whobeat him violently on the head with the heavy metal bangles which they purchase at the fairs, and wear on these occasions. If this inhuman smashing does not immediately destroy the victim’s life, an end is put to his sufferings by strangulation, a slit bamboo being used for the purpose. Strips of flesh are then cut off the back, and each recipient of the precious treasure carries his portion to the stream which waters his fields, and there suspends it on a pole. The remains of the mangled corpse are then buried, and funeral obsequies are performed seven days subsequently, and repeated one year afterwards.”
Vishnu was so astonished at the request of the blind man, which combined riches, issue, and the restorationof his eyesight in one demand, that he granted all his desires.The Kōmati and the Thief.An old Kōmati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police.The Kōmati and his Cakes.A Kōmati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Kōmati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Kōmati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied “Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?” and passed on. The unsuspecting Kōmati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves.The Kōmati and the Scorpion.A number of Kōmatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vināyakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Kōmati remarked “Whata fine smell! I have never experienced the like.” This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other.The Kōmati and the Milk Tax.Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Kōmatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. “A pie for a pie” said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax.The Kōmati and the Pāndyan King.Once upon a time, a Pāndyan King had a silver vessel of enormous size made for the use of the palace, and superstitiously believed that its first contents should not be of an ordinary kind. So he ordered his minister to publish abroad that all his subjects were to put into the vessel a chembu-full of milk from each house. The frugal Kōmatis, hearing of this, thought, each to himself, that, as the king had ordered such a large quantity, and others would bring milk, it would suffice if they took a chembu-full of water, as a little water poured into such a large quantity of milk would not change its colour, and it would not be known that they only contributed water. All the Kōmatis accordingly each brought a chembu-full of water, and none of them told the others of the trick he was about to play. But it so happened that the Kōmatis were the first to enter the palace, while theythought that the people of other castes had come and gone. The vessel was placed behind a screen, so that no one might cast the evil eye on it, and the Kōmatis were let in one by one. This they did in all haste, and left with great joy at the success of their trick. Thus there was nothing but water in the vessel. Now it had been arranged that the king was to be the first person to see the contents of his new vessel, and he was thunderstruck to find that it contained only water. He ordered his minister to punish the Kōmatis severely. But the ready-witted Kōmatis came forward, and said “Oh! gracious King, appease thy anger, and kindly listen to what we have to say. We each brought a chembu-full of water, to find out how much the precious vessel will hold. Now that we have taken the measurement, we will forthwith fetch the quantity of milk required.” The king was exceedingly pleased, and sent them away.A story is told to the effect that, when a Kōmati was asked to identify a horse about which a Muhammadan and Hindu were quarrelling, he said that the fore-part looked like the Muhammadan’s, and the hind-part like the Hindu’s. Another story is told of a Kōmati, who when asked by a Judge what he knew about a fight between two men, deposed that he saw them standing in front of each other and speaking in angry tones when a dust-storm arose. He shut his eyes, and the sound of blows reached his ears, but he could not say which of the men beat the other.Of proverbs relating to the Kōmatis, the following may be noted:—A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.The Kōmatis are satirically named Dhaniyāla jāti, or coriander caste, because, as the coriander seed has to be crushed before it is sown, so the Kōmati is supposed to come to terms only by rough treatment.The Kōmatis have the title Setti or Chetti, which is said to be a contracted form of Srēshti, meaning a precious person. In recent times, some of them have assumed the title Ayya.Kombara.—The name, meaning a cap made of the spathe of the areca palm (Areca Catechu) of an exogamous sept of Kelasi. Such caps are worn by various classes in South Canara,e.g., the Holeyas and Koragas.Kombu(stick).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.Komma.—Komma (a musical horn) or Kommula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Māla. Kommula is further a professional title for horn-blowers, mainly Māla, Mādiga, and Panisavan, who perform at festivals and funerals.Kommi.—A gōtra of Gollas, the members of which may not use kommi fuel.Kompala(houses).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Kōnān.—Kōnān or Kōnār is a title of Idaiyans. Some Gollas call themselves Kōnānulu.Kōnangi(buffoon).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Konda(mountain).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Mēdara, and a synonym for Konda Dora.Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152“Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at themercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him asadscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”In the Census Report, 1891, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes that “these people all speak Telugu, and the majority of them have returned that as their parent-tongue. But a large number returned their caste name in the parent-tongue column. I have since received a vocabulary, which is said to be taken from the dialect of the Konda Doras; and, if this is correct, then the real speech of these people is a dialect of Khond.” One Durgi Pātro, the head of a mutta (division of a Zemindari) informed Mr. G. F. Paddison that Konda Doras and Khonds areidentical. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis states that the Konda Doras “seem to be a section of the Khonds, which has largely taken to speaking Telugu, has adopted some of the Telugu customs, and is in the transitional stage between Animism and Hinduism. They call themselves Hindus, and worship the Pāndavas and a goddess called Talupulamma. They drink alcohol, and eat pork, mutton, etc., and will dine with Kāpus.” At times of census, Pāndavakulam (or Pāndava caste) has been returned as a title of the Konda Doras.For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. There are, among the Konda Doras, two well-defined divisions, called Pedda (big) and Chinna (little) Kondalu. Of these, the former have remained in their old semi-independent position, while the latter have come under Telugu domination. The Chinna Kondalu, who have been living in contact with the Bhaktha caste, have adopted the Telugu system of intipērulu, as exogamous septs, whereas the Pedda Kondalu have retained the totem divisions, which occur among other hill castes,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Bhāg (tiger), and Kochchimo (tortoise). Among the Chinna Kondalu, the custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed, and may further marry his own sister’s daughter. The Chinna Kondalu women wear glass bangles and beads, like women of the plains. Men of the Chinna Kondalu section serve as bearers and Government employees, whereas those of the Pedda Kondalu section are engaged in cultivation. The former have personal names corresponding to those of the inhabitants of the plains,e.g., Linganna, Gangamma, while the names of the latter are taken from the day of the week on whichthey were born,e.g., Bhudra (Wednesday), Sukra (Friday).Among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a marriage is decided on, the girl’s parents receive a present (vōli) of four rupees and a female cloth. On an auspicious day fixed by the Chukkamusti (star-gazer), the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom. The contracting couple are bathed in turmeric-water, put on new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law, and wrist-threads are tied on their wrists. On the same day, or the following morning, at a time settled by the Chukkamusti, the bridegroom, under the direction of a caste elder, ties the sathamānam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck. On the following day, the wrist-threads are removed, and the newly married couple bathe.Among the Pedda, as among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a man contemplates taking a wife, his parents carry three pots of liquor to the home of the girl whose hand he seeks. The acceptance of these by her father is a sign that the match is agreeable to him, and a jholla tonka (bride-price) of five rupees is paid to him. The future bridegroom’s party has to give three feasts to that of the bride-elect, for each of which a pig is killed. The girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and, if she has reached puberty, remains there. Otherwise she returns home, and joins her husband later on, the occasion being celebrated by a further feast of pork.Both sections allow the remarriage of widows. Among the Pedda Kondalu, a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. By both sections divorce is permitted. Among the Chinna Kondalus, a man who marries a divorcée has to pay her first husband twenty-fourrupees, of which half is divided among the neighbouring caste villages in certain recognised proportions.The dead are usually burnt by both sections. The Pedda Kondalu kill a pig on the third day, and hold a feast, at which much liquor is disposed of. By the Chinna Kondalu the chinna rōzu (little day) ceremony is observed, as it is by other castes dwelling in the plains.The Chinna Kondalu bear the titles Anna or Ayya when they are merely cultivators under Bhaktha landlords, and Dora under other circumstances. The Pedda Kondalu usually have no title.A riot took place, in 1900, at the village of Korravanivalasa in the Vizagapatam district, under the following strange circumstances. “A Konda Dora of this place, named Korra Mallayya, pretended that he was inspired, and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people from various parts of the agency. At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pāndava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that, to effect this, he would arm his followers with bamboos, which should be turned by magic into guns, and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut, and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these, the camp was drilled by the Swāmi (god), as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Pāchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them, and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but, owing to the threateningattitude of the Swāmi’s followers, had to abandon the attempt. The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Pārvatipur, and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the Swāmi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob, and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested, and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting, and three, including the Swāmi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the Swāmi died in jail, and the other two were hanged. The Swāmi’s infant son, the god Krishna, also died, and all trouble ended at once and completely.”Concerning the Konda Kāpus or Konda Reddis of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.153“The hill Reddis, or Konda Reddis, are a caste of jungle men, having some characteristics in common with the Kōyas. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand them; but it is said that some of them speak Kōya. They are of slighter build than the Kōyas, and their villages are even smaller. They will not eat in the house of a Kōya. They call themselves by various high-sounding titles, such as Pāndava Reddis, Rāja Reddis, and Reddis of the solar race (Sūryavamsa), and do not like the plain name of Konda Reddi. They recognize no endogamous sub-divisions, but have exogamous septs. In character they resemble the Kōyas, but are less simple and stupid, and in former years were much given to crime. They live by shifting cultivation. They do not touch beef, but will eat pork. They profess to be both Saivites and Vaishnavites, and occasionally employBrāhman priests at their funerals; and yet they worship the Pāndavas, the spirits of the hills (or, as they call them, the sons of Rācha), their ancestors including women who have died before their husbands, and the deity Muthyālamma and her brother Pōturāzu, Sāralamma, and Unamalamma. The last three are found in nearly every village. Other deities are Doddiganga, who is the protector of cattle, and is worshipped when the herds are driven into the forests to graze, and Dēsaganga (or Paraganga), who takes the place of the Maridamma of the plains, and the Muthyālamma of the Kōyas as goddess of cholera and small-pox. The shrine of Sāralamma of Pedakonda, eight miles east of Rēkapalle, is a place of pilgrimage, and so is Bison Hill (Pāpikonda), where an important Reddi festival is held every seven or eight years in honour of the Pāndava brothers, and a huge fat pig, fattened for the occasion, is killed and eaten. The Reddis, like the Kōyas, also observe the harvest festivals. They are very superstitious, believing firmly in sorcery, and calling in wizards in time of illness. Their villages are formed into groups like those of the Kōyas, and the hereditary headmen over these are called by different names, such as Dora, Mūttadar, Varnapedda, and Kulapatradu. Headmen of villages are known as Pettadars. They recognise, though they do not frequently practice, marriage by capture. If a parent wishes to show his dislike for a match, he absents himself when the suitor’s party calls, and sends a bundle of cold rice after them when they have departed. Children are buried. Vaishnavite Reddis burn their adult dead, while the Saivites bury them. Sātānis officiate as priests to the former, and Jangams to the latter. The pyre is kindled by the eldest male of the family, and a feast is held on the fifth day after thefuneral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families.”Kondaikatti.—The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, meaning those who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the partially shaved head.Kondaita.—A sub-division of Doluva.Kondaiyamkottai.—A sub-division of Maravan.Kondalar.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste of Vellāla. Kondalam means women’s hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.Kondh.—In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902–3, Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that “the Khonds inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, amountain. The number of sub-divisions returned is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond.”In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.154“The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Kōī dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficultyin understanding the Kui spoken in other parts. There are two principal dialects, one eastern, spoken in Gumsur and the adjoining parts of Bengal, and one western, spoken in Chinna Kimedi. In the north, Kui has come under the influence of the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech, and a specimen forwarded from the Patna State was written in Oriyā with a slight admixture of Chattisgarhī. The number of Kandhs returned at the census of 1891 was 627,388. The language returns, however, give a much smaller figure. The reason is that many Kandhs have abandoned their native speech.”It has been noted that “the character of the Khonds varies as much as their language. Where there has been much contact with the plains, it is not as favourable as elsewhere. As a rule, they may be taken to be a bold, and fitfully laborious mountain peasantry of simple, but not undignified manners; upright in their conduct; sincere in their superstitions; proud of their position as landholders; and tenacious of their rights. The Linepada Khonds affect manners like Uriyas, and, among other things, will not eat pork (the flesh of wild pigs excepted). The Khond villages have quite the appearance of Uriya villages, the houses are built with mud walls, a thing unknown with Khonds in other parts of the Māliahs; and there is also much neat garden cultivation, which is rare elsewhere, probably because the produce thereof would be appropriated by the Uriyas. In 1902, the Linepada Muttah (settlement) presented the unusual spectacle of a Khond ruler as Dolabēhara, as well as Moliko, with the Uriya Paiks really at his beck and call. In some places, the most valuable portions of the land have passed into the possession of Sondis and low-country sowcars (money-lenders), who have pandered to the Khonds by advancing them money, the greaterportion of which has been expended in drink, the repayment being exacted in land. Except in the Goomsur Māliahs, paddy (rice) cultivation is not extensively carried on by the Khonds; elsewhere it is chiefly in the hands of the Uriyas. The Khonds take little trouble in raising their crops. The result is that, except in the Goomsur Māliahs, where they grow crops to sell in the market for profit, we find a poverty-stricken race, possessing hardly any agricultural stock, and no signs of affluence. In Kimedi, however, they are beginning to follow the example of Goomsur, and doubtless their material prosperity would much increase if some check could be devised to save them from the Uriyas and Sondis, who are steadily acquiring all the wet land, and utilising the Khonds merely as cultivators.”It is noted by Mr. F. Fawcett (1902)155that “up to within fifteen years ago, the Khônds of the Ganjam hills would not engage in any ordinary labour. They would not, for example, carry even the smallest article of the district officer’s luggage. Elephants were accordingly provided by Government for carriage of tents and all camp luggage. But there has come a change, and, within the last ten years or so, the Khônds have taken to work in the ordinary way. Within the last few years, for the first time, the Khônds have been emigrating to Assam, to work in the tea-gardens. Accurate figures are not available, but the estimate of the best authority gives the number as about 3,000. This emigration is now stopped by edict. Of course, they do not set out, and go of their own accord. They are taken. The strange thing is that they go willingly.” It was enacted, in an order of Government, in 1901,156that “inexercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam.”In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.157The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in,e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. Thequestion arises as to how the Khonds should be repaid for their labour. Money is of little use to them in this out-of-the-way part of the country, and, if they got it, they would probably go to Surada to get drunk on it. It would be better to pay them in food-grain and cloths, and for this purpose departmental shops, and a regular system of accounts, such as are in force among the Chenchus in Kurnool, would be necessary.In the course of a lament over the change which has come over the Kondhs who live in the range of hills near Berhampore, Mr. S. P. Rice writes as follows.158“Here they live in seclusion and in freedom, but also in the lowest depths of squalor and poverty. Once they loved gay colours. True Khond dresses, both male and female, are full of stripes and patterns, in blue, yellow, and red. Where has gone the love of colour? Instead of the long waistcloth ending in tails of blue and red, the man binds about him a wretched rag that can hardly be called a garment. Once the women took a delight in decking themselves with flowers, and a pride in the silver ornaments that jangled on their naked breasts. Where are now the grasses that adorned them, and the innocence that allowed them to go clothed only to the waist? Gone! withered by the blast of the breath of a ‘superior civilization.’ Gone are the hairpins of sāmbur bone—an inestimable treasure in the eyes of the true hill Khond. Gone are the floral decorations, and the fantastic head-dresses, which are the pride of the mountain tribes. In dull, unromantic squalor our Khond lives, moves, and has his being; arid, ever as he moves, is heard the clanking upon his wrists of the fetters of his debt. Yet for all that he is happy.” The hairpinsreferred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins.The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.159“The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature—two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminaliafruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generallyfor salt. [Honey and wax are said to be collected by the Kondhs and Benias, who are expert climbers of precipitous rocks and lofty trees. The Kondhs recognise four different kinds of bees, known by the following Oriya names:—(a) bhaga mohu, a large-sized bee (Apis dorsata); (b) sattapuri mohu, building its comb in seven layers (Apis indica); (c) binchina mohu, with a comb like a fan; (d) nikiti mohu, a very small bee.]160Wet paddy is, of course, grown in the valleys and low-lying bottoms, where water is available, and much ingenuity is exercised in the formation of bunds (embankments) to retain the natural supply of moisture. The Khond has a dead eye for a natural level; it is surprising how speedily a seemingly impracticable tract of jungle will be converted into paddy fields by a laborious process of levelling by means of a flat board attached to a pair of buffaloes. The chief feature of the dry cultivation is the destructive practice of kumeri. A strip of forest, primeval, if possible, as being more fertile, is burnt, cultivated, and then deserted for a term of years, which may vary from three to thirty, according to the density or otherwise of the population. The Kutiah Khonds are the chief offenders in respect of kumeri, to which they confine themselves, as they have no ploughs or agricultural cattle. In the rare instances when they grow a little rice, the fields are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children, assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.“The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is bound round the loins,with Tartan ends which hang down in front and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate, and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak, which, with an arrangement of ‘bison’ horns and peacock’s feathers, is supposed to strike awe into the beholder’s mind. Khond women wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck and bosom being left bare. Pāno females generally wear an upper cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed, concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements) varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Māliahs, the use of glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam Māliahs has been described as follows.161“He centres his great love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully pinned over the left eyebrow. Thisknot he decorates according to his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller,Coracias indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front, while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in a sāl (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth, bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain places, he very frequently carries a bow and arrows, the former made of bent bamboo, the string of a long strip of bark, and the handle ornamented with stripes of the white quills of the peacock.]“The Khonds are very keen in the pursuit of game, for which the hot weather is the appointed time, and, during this period, a sambar or ‘bison’ has but little chance of escape if once wounded by an arrow, as they stick to the trail like sleuth hounds, and appear insensible to distance or fatigue. The arms they carry are the bow, arrows, and tangi, a species of light battle-axe that inflicts a serious wound. The women are not addicted to drink, but the males are universally attached to liquor, especially during the hot weather, when the sago palm (solopo:Caryota urens) is in full flow. They often run up sheds in the jungle, near especially good trees, and drink for days together. A great many deaths occur at this season by falls from trees when tapping the liquor.Feasts and sacrifices are occasions for drinking to excess, and the latter especially are often scenes of wild intoxication, the liquor used being either mohwa, or a species of strong beer brewed from rice or koeri. Khond women, when once married, appear to keep pretty straight, but there is a good deal of quiet immorality among the young men and girls, especially during the commencement of the hot weather, when parties are made up for fishing or the collection of mohwa fruit and other jungle berries. At the same time, a certain sense of shame exists, as instances are not at all uncommon of double suicide, when a pair of too ardent lovers are blown upon, and theirliaisonis discovered.“The generality of Khond and Pâno houses are constructed of broad sâl logs hewn out with the axe, and thatched with jungle grass, which is impervious to white-ants. In bamboo jungles, bamboo is substituted for sâl. The Khond houses are substantially built but very low, the pitch of the roof never exceeding 8 feet, and the eaves being only about 4 feet from the ground, the object being to ensure resistance to the violent storms that prevail during the monsoons.“Intermarriage between Khonds, Pânos, and Uriyas is not recognised, but cases do occur when a Pâno induces a Khond woman to go off with him. She may live with him as his wife, but no ceremony takes place. If a Pâno commits adultery with a Khond married woman, he has to pay a paronjo, or a fine of a buffalo, to the husband who retains his wife, and in addition a goat, a pig, a basket of paddy, a rupee, and a cavady (shoulder-pole) load of pots. If the adulterer is a Khond, he gets off with payment of the buffalo, which is slaughtered for the entertainment of the village. The husband retains his wife in this case, as also if he findsher pregnant when first she comes to him; this is not an uncommon incident. Divorce of the wife on the husband’s part is thus very rare, if it occurs at all, but cases are not unknown where the wife divorces her husband, and adopts a fresh alliance. When this takes place, her father has to return the whole of the gifts known as gontis, which the bridegroom paid for his wife when the marriage was originally arranged.”In a note on the tribes of the Agency tracts of the Vizagapatam district, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows.162“Of these, by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are about 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature, and who are so prominent in Ganjam, but a series of communities descended from them, which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors, according to the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria (jungle) Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak tāluk, the Dēsya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nimgiris, and the Kuttiya (hill) Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur tāluk. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system (separatehut for unmarried girls to sleep in) prevails among them in its simplest form, and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practiced to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.163The dress of the civilised Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These civilised Khonds worship all degrees of deities, from their own tribal Jākara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugu; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the intipērulu of the plains.”There is a tradition that, in olden days, four Kondhs, named Kasi, Mendora, Bolti, and Bolo, with eyes the size of brass pots, teeth like axe-heads, and ears like elephant’s ears, brought their ancestor Mandia Pātro from Jorasingi in Boad, and gave him and his children authority all over the country now comprised in Mahasingi, and in Kurtilli Barakhumma, Bodogodo, Balliguda, and Pussangia, on condition of settling their disputes, and aiding them in their rights. The following legendary account of the origin of the Kondhs is given by Mr. A. B. Jayaram Moodaliar. Once upon a time, the ground was all wet, and there were only two females on the earth, named Karaboodi and Tharthaboodi, each of whom was blessed with a single male child. The namesof the children were Kasarodi and Singarodi. All these individuals sprang from the interior of the earth, together with two small plants called nangakoocha and badokoocha, on which they depended for subsistence. One day, when Karaboodi was cutting these plants for cooking, she accidentally cut the little finger of her left hand, and the blood dropped on the ground. Instantly, the wet soft earth on which it fell became dry and hard. The woman then cooked the food, and gave some of it to her son, who asked her why it tasted so much sweeter than usual. She replied that she might have a dream that night, and, if so, would let him know. Next morning, the woman told him that, if he would act on her advice, he would prosper in this world, that he was not to think of her as his mother, and was to cut away the flesh of her back, dig several holes in the ground, bury the flesh, and cover the holes with stones. This her son did, and the rest of the body was cremated. The wet soil dried up and became hard, and all kinds of animals and trees came into existence. A partridge scratched the ground with its feet, and rāgi (millet), maize, dhāl (pea), and rice sprung forth from it. The two brothers argued that, as the sacrifice of their mother brought forth such abundance, they must sacrifice their brothers, sisters, and others, once a year in future.A god, by name Boora Panoo, came, with his wife and children, to Tharthaboodi and the two young men, to whom Boora Panoo’s daughters were married. They begat children, who were divided equally between Boora Panoo the grandfather and their fathers. Tharthaboodi objected to this division on the grounds that Boora Panoo’s son would stand in the relation of Mamoo to the children of Kasarodi and Singarodi; that, if the child was a female, when she got married, she would have to give a rupee to her Mamoo;and that, if it was a male that Boora Panoo’s daughter brought forth, the boy when he grew up would have to give the head of any animal he shot to Mamoo (Boora Panoo’s son). Then Boora Panoo built a house, and Kasarodi and Singarodi built two houses. All lived happily for two years. Then Karaboodi appeared in a dream, and told Kasarodi and Singarodi that, if they offered another human victim, their lands would be very fertile, and their cattle could flourish. In the absence of a suitable being, they sacrificed a monkey. Then Karaboodi appeared once more, and said that she was not pleased with the substitution of the monkey, and that a human being must be sacrificed. The two men, with their eight children, sought for a victim for twelve years. At the end of that time, they found a poor man, who had a son four years old, and found him, his wife and child good food, clothing, and shelter for a year. They then asked permission to sacrifice the son in return for their kindness, and the father gave his assent. The boy was fettered and handcuffed to prevent his running away, and taken good care of. Liquor was prepared from grains, and a bamboo, with a flag hoisted on it, planted in the ground. Next day, a pig was sacrificed near this post, and a feast was held. It was proclaimed that the boy would be tied to a post on the following day, and sacrificed on the third day. On the night previous to the sacrifice, the Janni (priest) took a reed, and poked it into the ground in several places. When it entered to a depth of about eight inches, it was believed that the god and goddess Tadapanoo and Dasapanoo were there. Round this spot, seven pieces of wood were arranged lengthways and crossways, and an egg was placed in the centre of the structure. The Khonds arrived from the various villages, and indulged in drink. The boy was teased,and told that he had been sold to them, that his sorrow would affect his parents only, and that he was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the people. He was conducted to the spot where the god and goddess had been found, tied with ropes, and held fast by the Khonds. He was made to lie on his stomach on the wooden structure, and held there. Pieces of flesh were removed from his back, arms and legs, and portions thereof buried at the Khond’s place of worship. Portions were also set up near a well of drinking water, and placed around the villages. The remainder of the sacrificed corpse was cremated on a pyre set alight with fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. On the following day, a buffalo was sacrificed, and a feast partaken of. Next day, the bamboo post was removed outside the village, and a fowl and eggs were offered to the deity. The following stanza is still recited by the Janni at the buffalo sacrifice, which has been substituted for that of a human victim:—Oh! come, male slave; come, female slave. What do you say? What do you call out for? You have been brought, ensnared by the Haddi. You have been called, ensnared by the Domba. What can I do, even if you are my child? You are sold for a pot of food.The ethnological section of the Madras Museum received a few years ago a very interesting relic in the shape of a human (Meriah) sacrifice post from Baligudu in Ganjam. This post, which was fast being reduced to a mere shell by white-ants, is, I believe, the only one now in existence. It was brought by Colonel Pickance, who was Assistant Superintendent of Police, and set up in the ground near the gate of the reserve Police barracks. The veteran members of a party of Kondhs, who were brought to Madras for the purpose of performing beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales in 1906, became wildly excited when they came across this relic of their former barbarous custom.“The best known case,” Mr. Frazer writes,164“of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by British officers, who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops, and immunity from all diseases and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim, a Meriah, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim, that is the son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian.”In 1837, Mr. Russell, in a report on the districts entrusted to his control, wrote as follows.165“The ceremonies attending the barbarous rite, and still more the mode of destroying life, vary in different parts of the country. In the Māliahs of Goomsur, the sacrifice is offered annually to Thadha Pennoo (the earth) under the effigy of a bird intended to represent a peacock, with the view of propitiating the deity to grant favourable seasons and crops. The ceremony is performed at the expense of, and in rotation by, certain mootahs (settlements) composing a community, and connected together from local circumstances. Besides these periodical sacrifices,others are made by single mootahs, and even by individuals, to avert any threatening calamity from sickness, murrain, or other cause. Grown men are the most esteemed (as victims), because the most costly. Children are purchased, and reared for years with the family of the person who ultimately devotes them to a cruel death, when circumstances are supposed to demand a sacrifice at his hands. They seem to be treated with kindness, and, if young, are kept under no constraint; but, when old enough to be sensible of the fate which awaits them, they are placed in fetters and guarded. Most of those who were rescued had been sold by their parents or nearest relations, a practice which, from all we could learn, is very common. Persons of riper age are kidnapped by wretches who trade in human flesh. The victim must always be purchased. Criminals, or prisoners captured in war, are not considered fitting subjects. The price is paid indifferently in brass utensils, cattle or corn. The Zanee (or priest), who may be of any caste, officiates at the sacrifice, but he performs the poojah (offering of flowers, incense, etc.) to the idol through the medium of the Toomba, who must be a Khond child under seven years of age. This child is fed and clothed at the public expense, eats with no other person, and is subjected to no act deemed impure. For a month prior to the sacrifice, there is much feasting and intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah, who is adorned with garlands, etc., and, on the day before the performance of the barbarous rite, is stupefied with toddy, and made to sit, or, if necessary, is bound at the bottom of a post bearing the effigy above described. The assembled multitude then dance around to music, and addressing the earth, say: ‘Oh! God, we offer the sacrifice to you. Give us good crops, seasons, and health.’ After which they addressthe victim, ‘We bought you with a price, and did not seize you. Now we sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.’ On the following day, the victim being again intoxicated and anointed with oil, each individual present touches the anointed part, and wipes the oil on his own head. All then proceed in procession around the village and its boundaries, preceded by music, bearing the victim and a pole, to the top of which is attached a tuft of peacock’s feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the village deity called Zakaree Pennoo, and represented by three stones, near which the brass effigy in the shape of a peacock is buried, they kill a hog in sacrifice and, having allowed the blood to flow into a pit prepared for the purpose, the victim, who, if it has been found possible, has been previously made senseless from intoxication, is seized and thrown in, and his face pressed down until he is suffocated in the bloody mire amid the noise of instruments. The Zanee then cuts a piece of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth. All the rest afterwards go through the same form, and carry the bloody prize to their villages, where the same rites are performed, part being interred near the village idol, and little bits on the boundaries. The head and face remain untouched, and the bones, when bare, are buried with them in the pit. After this horrid ceremony has been completed, a buffalo calf is brought in front of the post, and, his forefeet having been cut off, is left there till the following day. Women, dressed in male attire and armed as men, then drink, dance and sing round the spot, the calf is killed and eaten, and the Zanee is dismissed with a present of rice and a hog or calf.”In the same year, Mr. Arbuthnot, Collector of Vizagapatam, reported as follows. “Of the hill tribe Codooloo, there are said to be two distinct classes, the Cotia Codooloo and Jathapoo Codooloo. The former class is that which is in the habit of offering human sacrifices to the god called Jenkery, with a view to secure good crops. This ceremony is generally performed on the Sunday preceding or following the Pongal feast. The victim is seldom carried by force, but procured by purchase, and there is a fixed price for each person, which consists of forty articles such as a bullock, a male buffalo, a cow, a goat, a piece of cloth, a silk cloth, a brass pot, a large plate, a bunch of plantains, etc. The man who is destined for the sacrifice is carried before the god, and a small quantity of rice coloured with saffron (turmeric) is put upon his head. The influence of this is said to prevent his attempting to escape, even though set at liberty. It would appear, however, that, from the moment of his seizure till he is sacrificed, he is kept in a continued state of stupefaction or intoxication. He is allowed to wander about the village, to eat and drink anything he may take a fancy to, and even to have connection with any of the women whom he may meet. On the morning set apart for the sacrifice, he is carried before the idol in a state of intoxication. One of the villagers acts as priest, who cuts a small hole in the stomach of the victim, and with the blood that flows from the wound the idol is smeared. Then the crowds from the neighbouring villages rush forward, and he is literally cut into pieces. Each person who is so fortunate as to procure it carries away a morsel of the flesh, and presents it to the idol of his own village.”Concerning a method of sacrifice, which is illustrated by the post preserved in the Madras Museum, ColonelCampbell records166that “one of the most common ways of offering the sacrifice in Chinna Kimedi is to the effigy of an elephant (hatti mundo or elephant’s head) rudely carved in wood, fixed on the top of a stout post, on which it is made to revolve. After the performance of the usual ceremonies, the intended victim is fastened to the proboscis of the elephant, and, amidst the shouts and yells of the excited multitude of Khonds, is rapidly whirled round, when, at a given signal by the officiating Zanee or priest, the crowd rush in, seize the Meriah, and with their knives cut the flesh off the shrieking wretch as long as life remains. He is then cut down, the skeleton burnt, and the horrid orgies are over. In several villages I counted as many as fourteen effigies of elephants, which had been used in former sacrifices. These I caused to be overthrown by the baggage elephants attached to my camp in the presence of the assembled Khonds, to show them that these venerated objects had no power against the living animal, and to remove all vestiges of their bloody superstition.” In another report, Colonel Campbell describes how the miserable victim is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half intoxicated Khonds, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piecemeal from the bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt, and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.” Yet again, he describes a sacrifice which was peculiar to the Khonds of Jeypore. “It is,” he writes, “always succeeded by the sacrifice of three human beings, two to the sun to the east and west of the village, and one in the centre,with the usual barbarities of the Meriah. A stout wooden post about six feet long is firmly fixed in the ground, at the foot of it a narrow grave is dug, and to the top of the post the victim is firmly fastened by the long hair of his head. Four assistants hold his outstretched arms and legs, the body being suspended horizontally over the grave, with the face towards the earth. The officiating Junna or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation, at intervals hacking with his sacrificial knife the back part of the shrieking victim’s neck. ‘O! mighty Manicksoro, this is your festal day. To the Khonds the offering is Meriah, to kings Junna. On account of this sacrifice, you have given to kings kingdoms, guns and swords. The sacrifice we now offer you must eat, and we pray that our battle-axes may be converted into swords, our bows and arrows into gunpowder and balls; and, if we have any quarrels with other tribes, give us the victory. Preserve us from the tyranny of kings and their officers.’ Then, addressing the victim:—‘That we may enjoy prosperity, we offer you a sacrifice to our God Manicksoro, who will immediately eat you, so be not grieved at our slaying you. Your parents were aware, when we purchased you from them for sixty rupees, that we did so with intent to sacrifice you. There is, therefore, no sin on our heads, but on your parents. After you are dead, we shall perform your obsequies.’ The victim is then decapitated, the body thrown into the grave, and the head left suspended from the post till devoured by wild beasts. The knife remains fastened to the post till the three sacrifices have been performed, when it is removed with much ceremony. In an account by Captain Mac Viccar of the sacrifice as carried out at Eaji Deso, it is stated that on the day of sacrifice the Meriah is surrounded by the Khonds, whobeat him violently on the head with the heavy metal bangles which they purchase at the fairs, and wear on these occasions. If this inhuman smashing does not immediately destroy the victim’s life, an end is put to his sufferings by strangulation, a slit bamboo being used for the purpose. Strips of flesh are then cut off the back, and each recipient of the precious treasure carries his portion to the stream which waters his fields, and there suspends it on a pole. The remains of the mangled corpse are then buried, and funeral obsequies are performed seven days subsequently, and repeated one year afterwards.”
Vishnu was so astonished at the request of the blind man, which combined riches, issue, and the restorationof his eyesight in one demand, that he granted all his desires.The Kōmati and the Thief.An old Kōmati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police.The Kōmati and his Cakes.A Kōmati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Kōmati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Kōmati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied “Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?” and passed on. The unsuspecting Kōmati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves.The Kōmati and the Scorpion.A number of Kōmatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vināyakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Kōmati remarked “Whata fine smell! I have never experienced the like.” This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other.The Kōmati and the Milk Tax.Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Kōmatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. “A pie for a pie” said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax.The Kōmati and the Pāndyan King.Once upon a time, a Pāndyan King had a silver vessel of enormous size made for the use of the palace, and superstitiously believed that its first contents should not be of an ordinary kind. So he ordered his minister to publish abroad that all his subjects were to put into the vessel a chembu-full of milk from each house. The frugal Kōmatis, hearing of this, thought, each to himself, that, as the king had ordered such a large quantity, and others would bring milk, it would suffice if they took a chembu-full of water, as a little water poured into such a large quantity of milk would not change its colour, and it would not be known that they only contributed water. All the Kōmatis accordingly each brought a chembu-full of water, and none of them told the others of the trick he was about to play. But it so happened that the Kōmatis were the first to enter the palace, while theythought that the people of other castes had come and gone. The vessel was placed behind a screen, so that no one might cast the evil eye on it, and the Kōmatis were let in one by one. This they did in all haste, and left with great joy at the success of their trick. Thus there was nothing but water in the vessel. Now it had been arranged that the king was to be the first person to see the contents of his new vessel, and he was thunderstruck to find that it contained only water. He ordered his minister to punish the Kōmatis severely. But the ready-witted Kōmatis came forward, and said “Oh! gracious King, appease thy anger, and kindly listen to what we have to say. We each brought a chembu-full of water, to find out how much the precious vessel will hold. Now that we have taken the measurement, we will forthwith fetch the quantity of milk required.” The king was exceedingly pleased, and sent them away.A story is told to the effect that, when a Kōmati was asked to identify a horse about which a Muhammadan and Hindu were quarrelling, he said that the fore-part looked like the Muhammadan’s, and the hind-part like the Hindu’s. Another story is told of a Kōmati, who when asked by a Judge what he knew about a fight between two men, deposed that he saw them standing in front of each other and speaking in angry tones when a dust-storm arose. He shut his eyes, and the sound of blows reached his ears, but he could not say which of the men beat the other.Of proverbs relating to the Kōmatis, the following may be noted:—A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.The Kōmatis are satirically named Dhaniyāla jāti, or coriander caste, because, as the coriander seed has to be crushed before it is sown, so the Kōmati is supposed to come to terms only by rough treatment.The Kōmatis have the title Setti or Chetti, which is said to be a contracted form of Srēshti, meaning a precious person. In recent times, some of them have assumed the title Ayya.Kombara.—The name, meaning a cap made of the spathe of the areca palm (Areca Catechu) of an exogamous sept of Kelasi. Such caps are worn by various classes in South Canara,e.g., the Holeyas and Koragas.Kombu(stick).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.Komma.—Komma (a musical horn) or Kommula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Māla. Kommula is further a professional title for horn-blowers, mainly Māla, Mādiga, and Panisavan, who perform at festivals and funerals.Kommi.—A gōtra of Gollas, the members of which may not use kommi fuel.Kompala(houses).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Kōnān.—Kōnān or Kōnār is a title of Idaiyans. Some Gollas call themselves Kōnānulu.Kōnangi(buffoon).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Konda(mountain).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Mēdara, and a synonym for Konda Dora.Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152“Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at themercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him asadscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”In the Census Report, 1891, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes that “these people all speak Telugu, and the majority of them have returned that as their parent-tongue. But a large number returned their caste name in the parent-tongue column. I have since received a vocabulary, which is said to be taken from the dialect of the Konda Doras; and, if this is correct, then the real speech of these people is a dialect of Khond.” One Durgi Pātro, the head of a mutta (division of a Zemindari) informed Mr. G. F. Paddison that Konda Doras and Khonds areidentical. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis states that the Konda Doras “seem to be a section of the Khonds, which has largely taken to speaking Telugu, has adopted some of the Telugu customs, and is in the transitional stage between Animism and Hinduism. They call themselves Hindus, and worship the Pāndavas and a goddess called Talupulamma. They drink alcohol, and eat pork, mutton, etc., and will dine with Kāpus.” At times of census, Pāndavakulam (or Pāndava caste) has been returned as a title of the Konda Doras.For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. There are, among the Konda Doras, two well-defined divisions, called Pedda (big) and Chinna (little) Kondalu. Of these, the former have remained in their old semi-independent position, while the latter have come under Telugu domination. The Chinna Kondalu, who have been living in contact with the Bhaktha caste, have adopted the Telugu system of intipērulu, as exogamous septs, whereas the Pedda Kondalu have retained the totem divisions, which occur among other hill castes,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Bhāg (tiger), and Kochchimo (tortoise). Among the Chinna Kondalu, the custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed, and may further marry his own sister’s daughter. The Chinna Kondalu women wear glass bangles and beads, like women of the plains. Men of the Chinna Kondalu section serve as bearers and Government employees, whereas those of the Pedda Kondalu section are engaged in cultivation. The former have personal names corresponding to those of the inhabitants of the plains,e.g., Linganna, Gangamma, while the names of the latter are taken from the day of the week on whichthey were born,e.g., Bhudra (Wednesday), Sukra (Friday).Among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a marriage is decided on, the girl’s parents receive a present (vōli) of four rupees and a female cloth. On an auspicious day fixed by the Chukkamusti (star-gazer), the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom. The contracting couple are bathed in turmeric-water, put on new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law, and wrist-threads are tied on their wrists. On the same day, or the following morning, at a time settled by the Chukkamusti, the bridegroom, under the direction of a caste elder, ties the sathamānam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck. On the following day, the wrist-threads are removed, and the newly married couple bathe.Among the Pedda, as among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a man contemplates taking a wife, his parents carry three pots of liquor to the home of the girl whose hand he seeks. The acceptance of these by her father is a sign that the match is agreeable to him, and a jholla tonka (bride-price) of five rupees is paid to him. The future bridegroom’s party has to give three feasts to that of the bride-elect, for each of which a pig is killed. The girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and, if she has reached puberty, remains there. Otherwise she returns home, and joins her husband later on, the occasion being celebrated by a further feast of pork.Both sections allow the remarriage of widows. Among the Pedda Kondalu, a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. By both sections divorce is permitted. Among the Chinna Kondalus, a man who marries a divorcée has to pay her first husband twenty-fourrupees, of which half is divided among the neighbouring caste villages in certain recognised proportions.The dead are usually burnt by both sections. The Pedda Kondalu kill a pig on the third day, and hold a feast, at which much liquor is disposed of. By the Chinna Kondalu the chinna rōzu (little day) ceremony is observed, as it is by other castes dwelling in the plains.The Chinna Kondalu bear the titles Anna or Ayya when they are merely cultivators under Bhaktha landlords, and Dora under other circumstances. The Pedda Kondalu usually have no title.A riot took place, in 1900, at the village of Korravanivalasa in the Vizagapatam district, under the following strange circumstances. “A Konda Dora of this place, named Korra Mallayya, pretended that he was inspired, and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people from various parts of the agency. At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pāndava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that, to effect this, he would arm his followers with bamboos, which should be turned by magic into guns, and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut, and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these, the camp was drilled by the Swāmi (god), as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Pāchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them, and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but, owing to the threateningattitude of the Swāmi’s followers, had to abandon the attempt. The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Pārvatipur, and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the Swāmi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob, and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested, and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting, and three, including the Swāmi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the Swāmi died in jail, and the other two were hanged. The Swāmi’s infant son, the god Krishna, also died, and all trouble ended at once and completely.”Concerning the Konda Kāpus or Konda Reddis of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.153“The hill Reddis, or Konda Reddis, are a caste of jungle men, having some characteristics in common with the Kōyas. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand them; but it is said that some of them speak Kōya. They are of slighter build than the Kōyas, and their villages are even smaller. They will not eat in the house of a Kōya. They call themselves by various high-sounding titles, such as Pāndava Reddis, Rāja Reddis, and Reddis of the solar race (Sūryavamsa), and do not like the plain name of Konda Reddi. They recognize no endogamous sub-divisions, but have exogamous septs. In character they resemble the Kōyas, but are less simple and stupid, and in former years were much given to crime. They live by shifting cultivation. They do not touch beef, but will eat pork. They profess to be both Saivites and Vaishnavites, and occasionally employBrāhman priests at their funerals; and yet they worship the Pāndavas, the spirits of the hills (or, as they call them, the sons of Rācha), their ancestors including women who have died before their husbands, and the deity Muthyālamma and her brother Pōturāzu, Sāralamma, and Unamalamma. The last three are found in nearly every village. Other deities are Doddiganga, who is the protector of cattle, and is worshipped when the herds are driven into the forests to graze, and Dēsaganga (or Paraganga), who takes the place of the Maridamma of the plains, and the Muthyālamma of the Kōyas as goddess of cholera and small-pox. The shrine of Sāralamma of Pedakonda, eight miles east of Rēkapalle, is a place of pilgrimage, and so is Bison Hill (Pāpikonda), where an important Reddi festival is held every seven or eight years in honour of the Pāndava brothers, and a huge fat pig, fattened for the occasion, is killed and eaten. The Reddis, like the Kōyas, also observe the harvest festivals. They are very superstitious, believing firmly in sorcery, and calling in wizards in time of illness. Their villages are formed into groups like those of the Kōyas, and the hereditary headmen over these are called by different names, such as Dora, Mūttadar, Varnapedda, and Kulapatradu. Headmen of villages are known as Pettadars. They recognise, though they do not frequently practice, marriage by capture. If a parent wishes to show his dislike for a match, he absents himself when the suitor’s party calls, and sends a bundle of cold rice after them when they have departed. Children are buried. Vaishnavite Reddis burn their adult dead, while the Saivites bury them. Sātānis officiate as priests to the former, and Jangams to the latter. The pyre is kindled by the eldest male of the family, and a feast is held on the fifth day after thefuneral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families.”Kondaikatti.—The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, meaning those who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the partially shaved head.Kondaita.—A sub-division of Doluva.Kondaiyamkottai.—A sub-division of Maravan.Kondalar.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste of Vellāla. Kondalam means women’s hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.Kondh.—In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902–3, Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that “the Khonds inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, amountain. The number of sub-divisions returned is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond.”In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.154“The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Kōī dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficultyin understanding the Kui spoken in other parts. There are two principal dialects, one eastern, spoken in Gumsur and the adjoining parts of Bengal, and one western, spoken in Chinna Kimedi. In the north, Kui has come under the influence of the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech, and a specimen forwarded from the Patna State was written in Oriyā with a slight admixture of Chattisgarhī. The number of Kandhs returned at the census of 1891 was 627,388. The language returns, however, give a much smaller figure. The reason is that many Kandhs have abandoned their native speech.”It has been noted that “the character of the Khonds varies as much as their language. Where there has been much contact with the plains, it is not as favourable as elsewhere. As a rule, they may be taken to be a bold, and fitfully laborious mountain peasantry of simple, but not undignified manners; upright in their conduct; sincere in their superstitions; proud of their position as landholders; and tenacious of their rights. The Linepada Khonds affect manners like Uriyas, and, among other things, will not eat pork (the flesh of wild pigs excepted). The Khond villages have quite the appearance of Uriya villages, the houses are built with mud walls, a thing unknown with Khonds in other parts of the Māliahs; and there is also much neat garden cultivation, which is rare elsewhere, probably because the produce thereof would be appropriated by the Uriyas. In 1902, the Linepada Muttah (settlement) presented the unusual spectacle of a Khond ruler as Dolabēhara, as well as Moliko, with the Uriya Paiks really at his beck and call. In some places, the most valuable portions of the land have passed into the possession of Sondis and low-country sowcars (money-lenders), who have pandered to the Khonds by advancing them money, the greaterportion of which has been expended in drink, the repayment being exacted in land. Except in the Goomsur Māliahs, paddy (rice) cultivation is not extensively carried on by the Khonds; elsewhere it is chiefly in the hands of the Uriyas. The Khonds take little trouble in raising their crops. The result is that, except in the Goomsur Māliahs, where they grow crops to sell in the market for profit, we find a poverty-stricken race, possessing hardly any agricultural stock, and no signs of affluence. In Kimedi, however, they are beginning to follow the example of Goomsur, and doubtless their material prosperity would much increase if some check could be devised to save them from the Uriyas and Sondis, who are steadily acquiring all the wet land, and utilising the Khonds merely as cultivators.”It is noted by Mr. F. Fawcett (1902)155that “up to within fifteen years ago, the Khônds of the Ganjam hills would not engage in any ordinary labour. They would not, for example, carry even the smallest article of the district officer’s luggage. Elephants were accordingly provided by Government for carriage of tents and all camp luggage. But there has come a change, and, within the last ten years or so, the Khônds have taken to work in the ordinary way. Within the last few years, for the first time, the Khônds have been emigrating to Assam, to work in the tea-gardens. Accurate figures are not available, but the estimate of the best authority gives the number as about 3,000. This emigration is now stopped by edict. Of course, they do not set out, and go of their own accord. They are taken. The strange thing is that they go willingly.” It was enacted, in an order of Government, in 1901,156that “inexercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam.”In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.157The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in,e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. Thequestion arises as to how the Khonds should be repaid for their labour. Money is of little use to them in this out-of-the-way part of the country, and, if they got it, they would probably go to Surada to get drunk on it. It would be better to pay them in food-grain and cloths, and for this purpose departmental shops, and a regular system of accounts, such as are in force among the Chenchus in Kurnool, would be necessary.In the course of a lament over the change which has come over the Kondhs who live in the range of hills near Berhampore, Mr. S. P. Rice writes as follows.158“Here they live in seclusion and in freedom, but also in the lowest depths of squalor and poverty. Once they loved gay colours. True Khond dresses, both male and female, are full of stripes and patterns, in blue, yellow, and red. Where has gone the love of colour? Instead of the long waistcloth ending in tails of blue and red, the man binds about him a wretched rag that can hardly be called a garment. Once the women took a delight in decking themselves with flowers, and a pride in the silver ornaments that jangled on their naked breasts. Where are now the grasses that adorned them, and the innocence that allowed them to go clothed only to the waist? Gone! withered by the blast of the breath of a ‘superior civilization.’ Gone are the hairpins of sāmbur bone—an inestimable treasure in the eyes of the true hill Khond. Gone are the floral decorations, and the fantastic head-dresses, which are the pride of the mountain tribes. In dull, unromantic squalor our Khond lives, moves, and has his being; arid, ever as he moves, is heard the clanking upon his wrists of the fetters of his debt. Yet for all that he is happy.” The hairpinsreferred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins.The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.159“The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature—two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminaliafruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generallyfor salt. [Honey and wax are said to be collected by the Kondhs and Benias, who are expert climbers of precipitous rocks and lofty trees. The Kondhs recognise four different kinds of bees, known by the following Oriya names:—(a) bhaga mohu, a large-sized bee (Apis dorsata); (b) sattapuri mohu, building its comb in seven layers (Apis indica); (c) binchina mohu, with a comb like a fan; (d) nikiti mohu, a very small bee.]160Wet paddy is, of course, grown in the valleys and low-lying bottoms, where water is available, and much ingenuity is exercised in the formation of bunds (embankments) to retain the natural supply of moisture. The Khond has a dead eye for a natural level; it is surprising how speedily a seemingly impracticable tract of jungle will be converted into paddy fields by a laborious process of levelling by means of a flat board attached to a pair of buffaloes. The chief feature of the dry cultivation is the destructive practice of kumeri. A strip of forest, primeval, if possible, as being more fertile, is burnt, cultivated, and then deserted for a term of years, which may vary from three to thirty, according to the density or otherwise of the population. The Kutiah Khonds are the chief offenders in respect of kumeri, to which they confine themselves, as they have no ploughs or agricultural cattle. In the rare instances when they grow a little rice, the fields are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children, assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.“The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is bound round the loins,with Tartan ends which hang down in front and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate, and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak, which, with an arrangement of ‘bison’ horns and peacock’s feathers, is supposed to strike awe into the beholder’s mind. Khond women wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck and bosom being left bare. Pāno females generally wear an upper cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed, concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements) varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Māliahs, the use of glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam Māliahs has been described as follows.161“He centres his great love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully pinned over the left eyebrow. Thisknot he decorates according to his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller,Coracias indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front, while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in a sāl (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth, bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain places, he very frequently carries a bow and arrows, the former made of bent bamboo, the string of a long strip of bark, and the handle ornamented with stripes of the white quills of the peacock.]“The Khonds are very keen in the pursuit of game, for which the hot weather is the appointed time, and, during this period, a sambar or ‘bison’ has but little chance of escape if once wounded by an arrow, as they stick to the trail like sleuth hounds, and appear insensible to distance or fatigue. The arms they carry are the bow, arrows, and tangi, a species of light battle-axe that inflicts a serious wound. The women are not addicted to drink, but the males are universally attached to liquor, especially during the hot weather, when the sago palm (solopo:Caryota urens) is in full flow. They often run up sheds in the jungle, near especially good trees, and drink for days together. A great many deaths occur at this season by falls from trees when tapping the liquor.Feasts and sacrifices are occasions for drinking to excess, and the latter especially are often scenes of wild intoxication, the liquor used being either mohwa, or a species of strong beer brewed from rice or koeri. Khond women, when once married, appear to keep pretty straight, but there is a good deal of quiet immorality among the young men and girls, especially during the commencement of the hot weather, when parties are made up for fishing or the collection of mohwa fruit and other jungle berries. At the same time, a certain sense of shame exists, as instances are not at all uncommon of double suicide, when a pair of too ardent lovers are blown upon, and theirliaisonis discovered.“The generality of Khond and Pâno houses are constructed of broad sâl logs hewn out with the axe, and thatched with jungle grass, which is impervious to white-ants. In bamboo jungles, bamboo is substituted for sâl. The Khond houses are substantially built but very low, the pitch of the roof never exceeding 8 feet, and the eaves being only about 4 feet from the ground, the object being to ensure resistance to the violent storms that prevail during the monsoons.“Intermarriage between Khonds, Pânos, and Uriyas is not recognised, but cases do occur when a Pâno induces a Khond woman to go off with him. She may live with him as his wife, but no ceremony takes place. If a Pâno commits adultery with a Khond married woman, he has to pay a paronjo, or a fine of a buffalo, to the husband who retains his wife, and in addition a goat, a pig, a basket of paddy, a rupee, and a cavady (shoulder-pole) load of pots. If the adulterer is a Khond, he gets off with payment of the buffalo, which is slaughtered for the entertainment of the village. The husband retains his wife in this case, as also if he findsher pregnant when first she comes to him; this is not an uncommon incident. Divorce of the wife on the husband’s part is thus very rare, if it occurs at all, but cases are not unknown where the wife divorces her husband, and adopts a fresh alliance. When this takes place, her father has to return the whole of the gifts known as gontis, which the bridegroom paid for his wife when the marriage was originally arranged.”In a note on the tribes of the Agency tracts of the Vizagapatam district, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows.162“Of these, by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are about 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature, and who are so prominent in Ganjam, but a series of communities descended from them, which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors, according to the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria (jungle) Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak tāluk, the Dēsya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nimgiris, and the Kuttiya (hill) Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur tāluk. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system (separatehut for unmarried girls to sleep in) prevails among them in its simplest form, and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practiced to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.163The dress of the civilised Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These civilised Khonds worship all degrees of deities, from their own tribal Jākara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugu; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the intipērulu of the plains.”There is a tradition that, in olden days, four Kondhs, named Kasi, Mendora, Bolti, and Bolo, with eyes the size of brass pots, teeth like axe-heads, and ears like elephant’s ears, brought their ancestor Mandia Pātro from Jorasingi in Boad, and gave him and his children authority all over the country now comprised in Mahasingi, and in Kurtilli Barakhumma, Bodogodo, Balliguda, and Pussangia, on condition of settling their disputes, and aiding them in their rights. The following legendary account of the origin of the Kondhs is given by Mr. A. B. Jayaram Moodaliar. Once upon a time, the ground was all wet, and there were only two females on the earth, named Karaboodi and Tharthaboodi, each of whom was blessed with a single male child. The namesof the children were Kasarodi and Singarodi. All these individuals sprang from the interior of the earth, together with two small plants called nangakoocha and badokoocha, on which they depended for subsistence. One day, when Karaboodi was cutting these plants for cooking, she accidentally cut the little finger of her left hand, and the blood dropped on the ground. Instantly, the wet soft earth on which it fell became dry and hard. The woman then cooked the food, and gave some of it to her son, who asked her why it tasted so much sweeter than usual. She replied that she might have a dream that night, and, if so, would let him know. Next morning, the woman told him that, if he would act on her advice, he would prosper in this world, that he was not to think of her as his mother, and was to cut away the flesh of her back, dig several holes in the ground, bury the flesh, and cover the holes with stones. This her son did, and the rest of the body was cremated. The wet soil dried up and became hard, and all kinds of animals and trees came into existence. A partridge scratched the ground with its feet, and rāgi (millet), maize, dhāl (pea), and rice sprung forth from it. The two brothers argued that, as the sacrifice of their mother brought forth such abundance, they must sacrifice their brothers, sisters, and others, once a year in future.A god, by name Boora Panoo, came, with his wife and children, to Tharthaboodi and the two young men, to whom Boora Panoo’s daughters were married. They begat children, who were divided equally between Boora Panoo the grandfather and their fathers. Tharthaboodi objected to this division on the grounds that Boora Panoo’s son would stand in the relation of Mamoo to the children of Kasarodi and Singarodi; that, if the child was a female, when she got married, she would have to give a rupee to her Mamoo;and that, if it was a male that Boora Panoo’s daughter brought forth, the boy when he grew up would have to give the head of any animal he shot to Mamoo (Boora Panoo’s son). Then Boora Panoo built a house, and Kasarodi and Singarodi built two houses. All lived happily for two years. Then Karaboodi appeared in a dream, and told Kasarodi and Singarodi that, if they offered another human victim, their lands would be very fertile, and their cattle could flourish. In the absence of a suitable being, they sacrificed a monkey. Then Karaboodi appeared once more, and said that she was not pleased with the substitution of the monkey, and that a human being must be sacrificed. The two men, with their eight children, sought for a victim for twelve years. At the end of that time, they found a poor man, who had a son four years old, and found him, his wife and child good food, clothing, and shelter for a year. They then asked permission to sacrifice the son in return for their kindness, and the father gave his assent. The boy was fettered and handcuffed to prevent his running away, and taken good care of. Liquor was prepared from grains, and a bamboo, with a flag hoisted on it, planted in the ground. Next day, a pig was sacrificed near this post, and a feast was held. It was proclaimed that the boy would be tied to a post on the following day, and sacrificed on the third day. On the night previous to the sacrifice, the Janni (priest) took a reed, and poked it into the ground in several places. When it entered to a depth of about eight inches, it was believed that the god and goddess Tadapanoo and Dasapanoo were there. Round this spot, seven pieces of wood were arranged lengthways and crossways, and an egg was placed in the centre of the structure. The Khonds arrived from the various villages, and indulged in drink. The boy was teased,and told that he had been sold to them, that his sorrow would affect his parents only, and that he was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the people. He was conducted to the spot where the god and goddess had been found, tied with ropes, and held fast by the Khonds. He was made to lie on his stomach on the wooden structure, and held there. Pieces of flesh were removed from his back, arms and legs, and portions thereof buried at the Khond’s place of worship. Portions were also set up near a well of drinking water, and placed around the villages. The remainder of the sacrificed corpse was cremated on a pyre set alight with fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. On the following day, a buffalo was sacrificed, and a feast partaken of. Next day, the bamboo post was removed outside the village, and a fowl and eggs were offered to the deity. The following stanza is still recited by the Janni at the buffalo sacrifice, which has been substituted for that of a human victim:—Oh! come, male slave; come, female slave. What do you say? What do you call out for? You have been brought, ensnared by the Haddi. You have been called, ensnared by the Domba. What can I do, even if you are my child? You are sold for a pot of food.The ethnological section of the Madras Museum received a few years ago a very interesting relic in the shape of a human (Meriah) sacrifice post from Baligudu in Ganjam. This post, which was fast being reduced to a mere shell by white-ants, is, I believe, the only one now in existence. It was brought by Colonel Pickance, who was Assistant Superintendent of Police, and set up in the ground near the gate of the reserve Police barracks. The veteran members of a party of Kondhs, who were brought to Madras for the purpose of performing beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales in 1906, became wildly excited when they came across this relic of their former barbarous custom.“The best known case,” Mr. Frazer writes,164“of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by British officers, who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops, and immunity from all diseases and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim, a Meriah, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim, that is the son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian.”In 1837, Mr. Russell, in a report on the districts entrusted to his control, wrote as follows.165“The ceremonies attending the barbarous rite, and still more the mode of destroying life, vary in different parts of the country. In the Māliahs of Goomsur, the sacrifice is offered annually to Thadha Pennoo (the earth) under the effigy of a bird intended to represent a peacock, with the view of propitiating the deity to grant favourable seasons and crops. The ceremony is performed at the expense of, and in rotation by, certain mootahs (settlements) composing a community, and connected together from local circumstances. Besides these periodical sacrifices,others are made by single mootahs, and even by individuals, to avert any threatening calamity from sickness, murrain, or other cause. Grown men are the most esteemed (as victims), because the most costly. Children are purchased, and reared for years with the family of the person who ultimately devotes them to a cruel death, when circumstances are supposed to demand a sacrifice at his hands. They seem to be treated with kindness, and, if young, are kept under no constraint; but, when old enough to be sensible of the fate which awaits them, they are placed in fetters and guarded. Most of those who were rescued had been sold by their parents or nearest relations, a practice which, from all we could learn, is very common. Persons of riper age are kidnapped by wretches who trade in human flesh. The victim must always be purchased. Criminals, or prisoners captured in war, are not considered fitting subjects. The price is paid indifferently in brass utensils, cattle or corn. The Zanee (or priest), who may be of any caste, officiates at the sacrifice, but he performs the poojah (offering of flowers, incense, etc.) to the idol through the medium of the Toomba, who must be a Khond child under seven years of age. This child is fed and clothed at the public expense, eats with no other person, and is subjected to no act deemed impure. For a month prior to the sacrifice, there is much feasting and intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah, who is adorned with garlands, etc., and, on the day before the performance of the barbarous rite, is stupefied with toddy, and made to sit, or, if necessary, is bound at the bottom of a post bearing the effigy above described. The assembled multitude then dance around to music, and addressing the earth, say: ‘Oh! God, we offer the sacrifice to you. Give us good crops, seasons, and health.’ After which they addressthe victim, ‘We bought you with a price, and did not seize you. Now we sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.’ On the following day, the victim being again intoxicated and anointed with oil, each individual present touches the anointed part, and wipes the oil on his own head. All then proceed in procession around the village and its boundaries, preceded by music, bearing the victim and a pole, to the top of which is attached a tuft of peacock’s feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the village deity called Zakaree Pennoo, and represented by three stones, near which the brass effigy in the shape of a peacock is buried, they kill a hog in sacrifice and, having allowed the blood to flow into a pit prepared for the purpose, the victim, who, if it has been found possible, has been previously made senseless from intoxication, is seized and thrown in, and his face pressed down until he is suffocated in the bloody mire amid the noise of instruments. The Zanee then cuts a piece of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth. All the rest afterwards go through the same form, and carry the bloody prize to their villages, where the same rites are performed, part being interred near the village idol, and little bits on the boundaries. The head and face remain untouched, and the bones, when bare, are buried with them in the pit. After this horrid ceremony has been completed, a buffalo calf is brought in front of the post, and, his forefeet having been cut off, is left there till the following day. Women, dressed in male attire and armed as men, then drink, dance and sing round the spot, the calf is killed and eaten, and the Zanee is dismissed with a present of rice and a hog or calf.”In the same year, Mr. Arbuthnot, Collector of Vizagapatam, reported as follows. “Of the hill tribe Codooloo, there are said to be two distinct classes, the Cotia Codooloo and Jathapoo Codooloo. The former class is that which is in the habit of offering human sacrifices to the god called Jenkery, with a view to secure good crops. This ceremony is generally performed on the Sunday preceding or following the Pongal feast. The victim is seldom carried by force, but procured by purchase, and there is a fixed price for each person, which consists of forty articles such as a bullock, a male buffalo, a cow, a goat, a piece of cloth, a silk cloth, a brass pot, a large plate, a bunch of plantains, etc. The man who is destined for the sacrifice is carried before the god, and a small quantity of rice coloured with saffron (turmeric) is put upon his head. The influence of this is said to prevent his attempting to escape, even though set at liberty. It would appear, however, that, from the moment of his seizure till he is sacrificed, he is kept in a continued state of stupefaction or intoxication. He is allowed to wander about the village, to eat and drink anything he may take a fancy to, and even to have connection with any of the women whom he may meet. On the morning set apart for the sacrifice, he is carried before the idol in a state of intoxication. One of the villagers acts as priest, who cuts a small hole in the stomach of the victim, and with the blood that flows from the wound the idol is smeared. Then the crowds from the neighbouring villages rush forward, and he is literally cut into pieces. Each person who is so fortunate as to procure it carries away a morsel of the flesh, and presents it to the idol of his own village.”Concerning a method of sacrifice, which is illustrated by the post preserved in the Madras Museum, ColonelCampbell records166that “one of the most common ways of offering the sacrifice in Chinna Kimedi is to the effigy of an elephant (hatti mundo or elephant’s head) rudely carved in wood, fixed on the top of a stout post, on which it is made to revolve. After the performance of the usual ceremonies, the intended victim is fastened to the proboscis of the elephant, and, amidst the shouts and yells of the excited multitude of Khonds, is rapidly whirled round, when, at a given signal by the officiating Zanee or priest, the crowd rush in, seize the Meriah, and with their knives cut the flesh off the shrieking wretch as long as life remains. He is then cut down, the skeleton burnt, and the horrid orgies are over. In several villages I counted as many as fourteen effigies of elephants, which had been used in former sacrifices. These I caused to be overthrown by the baggage elephants attached to my camp in the presence of the assembled Khonds, to show them that these venerated objects had no power against the living animal, and to remove all vestiges of their bloody superstition.” In another report, Colonel Campbell describes how the miserable victim is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half intoxicated Khonds, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piecemeal from the bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt, and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.” Yet again, he describes a sacrifice which was peculiar to the Khonds of Jeypore. “It is,” he writes, “always succeeded by the sacrifice of three human beings, two to the sun to the east and west of the village, and one in the centre,with the usual barbarities of the Meriah. A stout wooden post about six feet long is firmly fixed in the ground, at the foot of it a narrow grave is dug, and to the top of the post the victim is firmly fastened by the long hair of his head. Four assistants hold his outstretched arms and legs, the body being suspended horizontally over the grave, with the face towards the earth. The officiating Junna or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation, at intervals hacking with his sacrificial knife the back part of the shrieking victim’s neck. ‘O! mighty Manicksoro, this is your festal day. To the Khonds the offering is Meriah, to kings Junna. On account of this sacrifice, you have given to kings kingdoms, guns and swords. The sacrifice we now offer you must eat, and we pray that our battle-axes may be converted into swords, our bows and arrows into gunpowder and balls; and, if we have any quarrels with other tribes, give us the victory. Preserve us from the tyranny of kings and their officers.’ Then, addressing the victim:—‘That we may enjoy prosperity, we offer you a sacrifice to our God Manicksoro, who will immediately eat you, so be not grieved at our slaying you. Your parents were aware, when we purchased you from them for sixty rupees, that we did so with intent to sacrifice you. There is, therefore, no sin on our heads, but on your parents. After you are dead, we shall perform your obsequies.’ The victim is then decapitated, the body thrown into the grave, and the head left suspended from the post till devoured by wild beasts. The knife remains fastened to the post till the three sacrifices have been performed, when it is removed with much ceremony. In an account by Captain Mac Viccar of the sacrifice as carried out at Eaji Deso, it is stated that on the day of sacrifice the Meriah is surrounded by the Khonds, whobeat him violently on the head with the heavy metal bangles which they purchase at the fairs, and wear on these occasions. If this inhuman smashing does not immediately destroy the victim’s life, an end is put to his sufferings by strangulation, a slit bamboo being used for the purpose. Strips of flesh are then cut off the back, and each recipient of the precious treasure carries his portion to the stream which waters his fields, and there suspends it on a pole. The remains of the mangled corpse are then buried, and funeral obsequies are performed seven days subsequently, and repeated one year afterwards.”
Vishnu was so astonished at the request of the blind man, which combined riches, issue, and the restorationof his eyesight in one demand, that he granted all his desires.The Kōmati and the Thief.An old Kōmati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police.The Kōmati and his Cakes.A Kōmati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Kōmati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Kōmati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied “Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?” and passed on. The unsuspecting Kōmati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves.The Kōmati and the Scorpion.A number of Kōmatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vināyakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Kōmati remarked “Whata fine smell! I have never experienced the like.” This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other.The Kōmati and the Milk Tax.Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Kōmatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. “A pie for a pie” said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax.The Kōmati and the Pāndyan King.Once upon a time, a Pāndyan King had a silver vessel of enormous size made for the use of the palace, and superstitiously believed that its first contents should not be of an ordinary kind. So he ordered his minister to publish abroad that all his subjects were to put into the vessel a chembu-full of milk from each house. The frugal Kōmatis, hearing of this, thought, each to himself, that, as the king had ordered such a large quantity, and others would bring milk, it would suffice if they took a chembu-full of water, as a little water poured into such a large quantity of milk would not change its colour, and it would not be known that they only contributed water. All the Kōmatis accordingly each brought a chembu-full of water, and none of them told the others of the trick he was about to play. But it so happened that the Kōmatis were the first to enter the palace, while theythought that the people of other castes had come and gone. The vessel was placed behind a screen, so that no one might cast the evil eye on it, and the Kōmatis were let in one by one. This they did in all haste, and left with great joy at the success of their trick. Thus there was nothing but water in the vessel. Now it had been arranged that the king was to be the first person to see the contents of his new vessel, and he was thunderstruck to find that it contained only water. He ordered his minister to punish the Kōmatis severely. But the ready-witted Kōmatis came forward, and said “Oh! gracious King, appease thy anger, and kindly listen to what we have to say. We each brought a chembu-full of water, to find out how much the precious vessel will hold. Now that we have taken the measurement, we will forthwith fetch the quantity of milk required.” The king was exceedingly pleased, and sent them away.A story is told to the effect that, when a Kōmati was asked to identify a horse about which a Muhammadan and Hindu were quarrelling, he said that the fore-part looked like the Muhammadan’s, and the hind-part like the Hindu’s. Another story is told of a Kōmati, who when asked by a Judge what he knew about a fight between two men, deposed that he saw them standing in front of each other and speaking in angry tones when a dust-storm arose. He shut his eyes, and the sound of blows reached his ears, but he could not say which of the men beat the other.Of proverbs relating to the Kōmatis, the following may be noted:—A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.The Kōmatis are satirically named Dhaniyāla jāti, or coriander caste, because, as the coriander seed has to be crushed before it is sown, so the Kōmati is supposed to come to terms only by rough treatment.The Kōmatis have the title Setti or Chetti, which is said to be a contracted form of Srēshti, meaning a precious person. In recent times, some of them have assumed the title Ayya.Kombara.—The name, meaning a cap made of the spathe of the areca palm (Areca Catechu) of an exogamous sept of Kelasi. Such caps are worn by various classes in South Canara,e.g., the Holeyas and Koragas.Kombu(stick).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.Komma.—Komma (a musical horn) or Kommula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Māla. Kommula is further a professional title for horn-blowers, mainly Māla, Mādiga, and Panisavan, who perform at festivals and funerals.Kommi.—A gōtra of Gollas, the members of which may not use kommi fuel.Kompala(houses).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Kōnān.—Kōnān or Kōnār is a title of Idaiyans. Some Gollas call themselves Kōnānulu.Kōnangi(buffoon).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.Konda(mountain).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Mēdara, and a synonym for Konda Dora.Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152“Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at themercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him asadscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”In the Census Report, 1891, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes that “these people all speak Telugu, and the majority of them have returned that as their parent-tongue. But a large number returned their caste name in the parent-tongue column. I have since received a vocabulary, which is said to be taken from the dialect of the Konda Doras; and, if this is correct, then the real speech of these people is a dialect of Khond.” One Durgi Pātro, the head of a mutta (division of a Zemindari) informed Mr. G. F. Paddison that Konda Doras and Khonds areidentical. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis states that the Konda Doras “seem to be a section of the Khonds, which has largely taken to speaking Telugu, has adopted some of the Telugu customs, and is in the transitional stage between Animism and Hinduism. They call themselves Hindus, and worship the Pāndavas and a goddess called Talupulamma. They drink alcohol, and eat pork, mutton, etc., and will dine with Kāpus.” At times of census, Pāndavakulam (or Pāndava caste) has been returned as a title of the Konda Doras.For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. There are, among the Konda Doras, two well-defined divisions, called Pedda (big) and Chinna (little) Kondalu. Of these, the former have remained in their old semi-independent position, while the latter have come under Telugu domination. The Chinna Kondalu, who have been living in contact with the Bhaktha caste, have adopted the Telugu system of intipērulu, as exogamous septs, whereas the Pedda Kondalu have retained the totem divisions, which occur among other hill castes,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Bhāg (tiger), and Kochchimo (tortoise). Among the Chinna Kondalu, the custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed, and may further marry his own sister’s daughter. The Chinna Kondalu women wear glass bangles and beads, like women of the plains. Men of the Chinna Kondalu section serve as bearers and Government employees, whereas those of the Pedda Kondalu section are engaged in cultivation. The former have personal names corresponding to those of the inhabitants of the plains,e.g., Linganna, Gangamma, while the names of the latter are taken from the day of the week on whichthey were born,e.g., Bhudra (Wednesday), Sukra (Friday).Among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a marriage is decided on, the girl’s parents receive a present (vōli) of four rupees and a female cloth. On an auspicious day fixed by the Chukkamusti (star-gazer), the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom. The contracting couple are bathed in turmeric-water, put on new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law, and wrist-threads are tied on their wrists. On the same day, or the following morning, at a time settled by the Chukkamusti, the bridegroom, under the direction of a caste elder, ties the sathamānam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck. On the following day, the wrist-threads are removed, and the newly married couple bathe.Among the Pedda, as among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a man contemplates taking a wife, his parents carry three pots of liquor to the home of the girl whose hand he seeks. The acceptance of these by her father is a sign that the match is agreeable to him, and a jholla tonka (bride-price) of five rupees is paid to him. The future bridegroom’s party has to give three feasts to that of the bride-elect, for each of which a pig is killed. The girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and, if she has reached puberty, remains there. Otherwise she returns home, and joins her husband later on, the occasion being celebrated by a further feast of pork.Both sections allow the remarriage of widows. Among the Pedda Kondalu, a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. By both sections divorce is permitted. Among the Chinna Kondalus, a man who marries a divorcée has to pay her first husband twenty-fourrupees, of which half is divided among the neighbouring caste villages in certain recognised proportions.The dead are usually burnt by both sections. The Pedda Kondalu kill a pig on the third day, and hold a feast, at which much liquor is disposed of. By the Chinna Kondalu the chinna rōzu (little day) ceremony is observed, as it is by other castes dwelling in the plains.The Chinna Kondalu bear the titles Anna or Ayya when they are merely cultivators under Bhaktha landlords, and Dora under other circumstances. The Pedda Kondalu usually have no title.A riot took place, in 1900, at the village of Korravanivalasa in the Vizagapatam district, under the following strange circumstances. “A Konda Dora of this place, named Korra Mallayya, pretended that he was inspired, and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people from various parts of the agency. At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pāndava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that, to effect this, he would arm his followers with bamboos, which should be turned by magic into guns, and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut, and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these, the camp was drilled by the Swāmi (god), as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Pāchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them, and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but, owing to the threateningattitude of the Swāmi’s followers, had to abandon the attempt. The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Pārvatipur, and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the Swāmi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob, and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested, and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting, and three, including the Swāmi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the Swāmi died in jail, and the other two were hanged. The Swāmi’s infant son, the god Krishna, also died, and all trouble ended at once and completely.”Concerning the Konda Kāpus or Konda Reddis of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.153“The hill Reddis, or Konda Reddis, are a caste of jungle men, having some characteristics in common with the Kōyas. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand them; but it is said that some of them speak Kōya. They are of slighter build than the Kōyas, and their villages are even smaller. They will not eat in the house of a Kōya. They call themselves by various high-sounding titles, such as Pāndava Reddis, Rāja Reddis, and Reddis of the solar race (Sūryavamsa), and do not like the plain name of Konda Reddi. They recognize no endogamous sub-divisions, but have exogamous septs. In character they resemble the Kōyas, but are less simple and stupid, and in former years were much given to crime. They live by shifting cultivation. They do not touch beef, but will eat pork. They profess to be both Saivites and Vaishnavites, and occasionally employBrāhman priests at their funerals; and yet they worship the Pāndavas, the spirits of the hills (or, as they call them, the sons of Rācha), their ancestors including women who have died before their husbands, and the deity Muthyālamma and her brother Pōturāzu, Sāralamma, and Unamalamma. The last three are found in nearly every village. Other deities are Doddiganga, who is the protector of cattle, and is worshipped when the herds are driven into the forests to graze, and Dēsaganga (or Paraganga), who takes the place of the Maridamma of the plains, and the Muthyālamma of the Kōyas as goddess of cholera and small-pox. The shrine of Sāralamma of Pedakonda, eight miles east of Rēkapalle, is a place of pilgrimage, and so is Bison Hill (Pāpikonda), where an important Reddi festival is held every seven or eight years in honour of the Pāndava brothers, and a huge fat pig, fattened for the occasion, is killed and eaten. The Reddis, like the Kōyas, also observe the harvest festivals. They are very superstitious, believing firmly in sorcery, and calling in wizards in time of illness. Their villages are formed into groups like those of the Kōyas, and the hereditary headmen over these are called by different names, such as Dora, Mūttadar, Varnapedda, and Kulapatradu. Headmen of villages are known as Pettadars. They recognise, though they do not frequently practice, marriage by capture. If a parent wishes to show his dislike for a match, he absents himself when the suitor’s party calls, and sends a bundle of cold rice after them when they have departed. Children are buried. Vaishnavite Reddis burn their adult dead, while the Saivites bury them. Sātānis officiate as priests to the former, and Jangams to the latter. The pyre is kindled by the eldest male of the family, and a feast is held on the fifth day after thefuneral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families.”Kondaikatti.—The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, meaning those who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the partially shaved head.Kondaita.—A sub-division of Doluva.Kondaiyamkottai.—A sub-division of Maravan.Kondalar.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste of Vellāla. Kondalam means women’s hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.Kondh.—In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902–3, Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that “the Khonds inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, amountain. The number of sub-divisions returned is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond.”In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.154“The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Kōī dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficultyin understanding the Kui spoken in other parts. There are two principal dialects, one eastern, spoken in Gumsur and the adjoining parts of Bengal, and one western, spoken in Chinna Kimedi. In the north, Kui has come under the influence of the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech, and a specimen forwarded from the Patna State was written in Oriyā with a slight admixture of Chattisgarhī. The number of Kandhs returned at the census of 1891 was 627,388. The language returns, however, give a much smaller figure. The reason is that many Kandhs have abandoned their native speech.”It has been noted that “the character of the Khonds varies as much as their language. Where there has been much contact with the plains, it is not as favourable as elsewhere. As a rule, they may be taken to be a bold, and fitfully laborious mountain peasantry of simple, but not undignified manners; upright in their conduct; sincere in their superstitions; proud of their position as landholders; and tenacious of their rights. The Linepada Khonds affect manners like Uriyas, and, among other things, will not eat pork (the flesh of wild pigs excepted). The Khond villages have quite the appearance of Uriya villages, the houses are built with mud walls, a thing unknown with Khonds in other parts of the Māliahs; and there is also much neat garden cultivation, which is rare elsewhere, probably because the produce thereof would be appropriated by the Uriyas. In 1902, the Linepada Muttah (settlement) presented the unusual spectacle of a Khond ruler as Dolabēhara, as well as Moliko, with the Uriya Paiks really at his beck and call. In some places, the most valuable portions of the land have passed into the possession of Sondis and low-country sowcars (money-lenders), who have pandered to the Khonds by advancing them money, the greaterportion of which has been expended in drink, the repayment being exacted in land. Except in the Goomsur Māliahs, paddy (rice) cultivation is not extensively carried on by the Khonds; elsewhere it is chiefly in the hands of the Uriyas. The Khonds take little trouble in raising their crops. The result is that, except in the Goomsur Māliahs, where they grow crops to sell in the market for profit, we find a poverty-stricken race, possessing hardly any agricultural stock, and no signs of affluence. In Kimedi, however, they are beginning to follow the example of Goomsur, and doubtless their material prosperity would much increase if some check could be devised to save them from the Uriyas and Sondis, who are steadily acquiring all the wet land, and utilising the Khonds merely as cultivators.”It is noted by Mr. F. Fawcett (1902)155that “up to within fifteen years ago, the Khônds of the Ganjam hills would not engage in any ordinary labour. They would not, for example, carry even the smallest article of the district officer’s luggage. Elephants were accordingly provided by Government for carriage of tents and all camp luggage. But there has come a change, and, within the last ten years or so, the Khônds have taken to work in the ordinary way. Within the last few years, for the first time, the Khônds have been emigrating to Assam, to work in the tea-gardens. Accurate figures are not available, but the estimate of the best authority gives the number as about 3,000. This emigration is now stopped by edict. Of course, they do not set out, and go of their own accord. They are taken. The strange thing is that they go willingly.” It was enacted, in an order of Government, in 1901,156that “inexercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam.”In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.157The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in,e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. Thequestion arises as to how the Khonds should be repaid for their labour. Money is of little use to them in this out-of-the-way part of the country, and, if they got it, they would probably go to Surada to get drunk on it. It would be better to pay them in food-grain and cloths, and for this purpose departmental shops, and a regular system of accounts, such as are in force among the Chenchus in Kurnool, would be necessary.In the course of a lament over the change which has come over the Kondhs who live in the range of hills near Berhampore, Mr. S. P. Rice writes as follows.158“Here they live in seclusion and in freedom, but also in the lowest depths of squalor and poverty. Once they loved gay colours. True Khond dresses, both male and female, are full of stripes and patterns, in blue, yellow, and red. Where has gone the love of colour? Instead of the long waistcloth ending in tails of blue and red, the man binds about him a wretched rag that can hardly be called a garment. Once the women took a delight in decking themselves with flowers, and a pride in the silver ornaments that jangled on their naked breasts. Where are now the grasses that adorned them, and the innocence that allowed them to go clothed only to the waist? Gone! withered by the blast of the breath of a ‘superior civilization.’ Gone are the hairpins of sāmbur bone—an inestimable treasure in the eyes of the true hill Khond. Gone are the floral decorations, and the fantastic head-dresses, which are the pride of the mountain tribes. In dull, unromantic squalor our Khond lives, moves, and has his being; arid, ever as he moves, is heard the clanking upon his wrists of the fetters of his debt. Yet for all that he is happy.” The hairpinsreferred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins.The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.159“The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature—two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminaliafruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generallyfor salt. [Honey and wax are said to be collected by the Kondhs and Benias, who are expert climbers of precipitous rocks and lofty trees. The Kondhs recognise four different kinds of bees, known by the following Oriya names:—(a) bhaga mohu, a large-sized bee (Apis dorsata); (b) sattapuri mohu, building its comb in seven layers (Apis indica); (c) binchina mohu, with a comb like a fan; (d) nikiti mohu, a very small bee.]160Wet paddy is, of course, grown in the valleys and low-lying bottoms, where water is available, and much ingenuity is exercised in the formation of bunds (embankments) to retain the natural supply of moisture. The Khond has a dead eye for a natural level; it is surprising how speedily a seemingly impracticable tract of jungle will be converted into paddy fields by a laborious process of levelling by means of a flat board attached to a pair of buffaloes. The chief feature of the dry cultivation is the destructive practice of kumeri. A strip of forest, primeval, if possible, as being more fertile, is burnt, cultivated, and then deserted for a term of years, which may vary from three to thirty, according to the density or otherwise of the population. The Kutiah Khonds are the chief offenders in respect of kumeri, to which they confine themselves, as they have no ploughs or agricultural cattle. In the rare instances when they grow a little rice, the fields are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children, assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.“The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is bound round the loins,with Tartan ends which hang down in front and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate, and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak, which, with an arrangement of ‘bison’ horns and peacock’s feathers, is supposed to strike awe into the beholder’s mind. Khond women wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck and bosom being left bare. Pāno females generally wear an upper cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed, concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements) varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Māliahs, the use of glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam Māliahs has been described as follows.161“He centres his great love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully pinned over the left eyebrow. Thisknot he decorates according to his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller,Coracias indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front, while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in a sāl (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth, bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain places, he very frequently carries a bow and arrows, the former made of bent bamboo, the string of a long strip of bark, and the handle ornamented with stripes of the white quills of the peacock.]“The Khonds are very keen in the pursuit of game, for which the hot weather is the appointed time, and, during this period, a sambar or ‘bison’ has but little chance of escape if once wounded by an arrow, as they stick to the trail like sleuth hounds, and appear insensible to distance or fatigue. The arms they carry are the bow, arrows, and tangi, a species of light battle-axe that inflicts a serious wound. The women are not addicted to drink, but the males are universally attached to liquor, especially during the hot weather, when the sago palm (solopo:Caryota urens) is in full flow. They often run up sheds in the jungle, near especially good trees, and drink for days together. A great many deaths occur at this season by falls from trees when tapping the liquor.Feasts and sacrifices are occasions for drinking to excess, and the latter especially are often scenes of wild intoxication, the liquor used being either mohwa, or a species of strong beer brewed from rice or koeri. Khond women, when once married, appear to keep pretty straight, but there is a good deal of quiet immorality among the young men and girls, especially during the commencement of the hot weather, when parties are made up for fishing or the collection of mohwa fruit and other jungle berries. At the same time, a certain sense of shame exists, as instances are not at all uncommon of double suicide, when a pair of too ardent lovers are blown upon, and theirliaisonis discovered.“The generality of Khond and Pâno houses are constructed of broad sâl logs hewn out with the axe, and thatched with jungle grass, which is impervious to white-ants. In bamboo jungles, bamboo is substituted for sâl. The Khond houses are substantially built but very low, the pitch of the roof never exceeding 8 feet, and the eaves being only about 4 feet from the ground, the object being to ensure resistance to the violent storms that prevail during the monsoons.“Intermarriage between Khonds, Pânos, and Uriyas is not recognised, but cases do occur when a Pâno induces a Khond woman to go off with him. She may live with him as his wife, but no ceremony takes place. If a Pâno commits adultery with a Khond married woman, he has to pay a paronjo, or a fine of a buffalo, to the husband who retains his wife, and in addition a goat, a pig, a basket of paddy, a rupee, and a cavady (shoulder-pole) load of pots. If the adulterer is a Khond, he gets off with payment of the buffalo, which is slaughtered for the entertainment of the village. The husband retains his wife in this case, as also if he findsher pregnant when first she comes to him; this is not an uncommon incident. Divorce of the wife on the husband’s part is thus very rare, if it occurs at all, but cases are not unknown where the wife divorces her husband, and adopts a fresh alliance. When this takes place, her father has to return the whole of the gifts known as gontis, which the bridegroom paid for his wife when the marriage was originally arranged.”In a note on the tribes of the Agency tracts of the Vizagapatam district, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows.162“Of these, by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are about 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature, and who are so prominent in Ganjam, but a series of communities descended from them, which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors, according to the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria (jungle) Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak tāluk, the Dēsya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nimgiris, and the Kuttiya (hill) Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur tāluk. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system (separatehut for unmarried girls to sleep in) prevails among them in its simplest form, and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practiced to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.163The dress of the civilised Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These civilised Khonds worship all degrees of deities, from their own tribal Jākara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugu; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the intipērulu of the plains.”There is a tradition that, in olden days, four Kondhs, named Kasi, Mendora, Bolti, and Bolo, with eyes the size of brass pots, teeth like axe-heads, and ears like elephant’s ears, brought their ancestor Mandia Pātro from Jorasingi in Boad, and gave him and his children authority all over the country now comprised in Mahasingi, and in Kurtilli Barakhumma, Bodogodo, Balliguda, and Pussangia, on condition of settling their disputes, and aiding them in their rights. The following legendary account of the origin of the Kondhs is given by Mr. A. B. Jayaram Moodaliar. Once upon a time, the ground was all wet, and there were only two females on the earth, named Karaboodi and Tharthaboodi, each of whom was blessed with a single male child. The namesof the children were Kasarodi and Singarodi. All these individuals sprang from the interior of the earth, together with two small plants called nangakoocha and badokoocha, on which they depended for subsistence. One day, when Karaboodi was cutting these plants for cooking, she accidentally cut the little finger of her left hand, and the blood dropped on the ground. Instantly, the wet soft earth on which it fell became dry and hard. The woman then cooked the food, and gave some of it to her son, who asked her why it tasted so much sweeter than usual. She replied that she might have a dream that night, and, if so, would let him know. Next morning, the woman told him that, if he would act on her advice, he would prosper in this world, that he was not to think of her as his mother, and was to cut away the flesh of her back, dig several holes in the ground, bury the flesh, and cover the holes with stones. This her son did, and the rest of the body was cremated. The wet soil dried up and became hard, and all kinds of animals and trees came into existence. A partridge scratched the ground with its feet, and rāgi (millet), maize, dhāl (pea), and rice sprung forth from it. The two brothers argued that, as the sacrifice of their mother brought forth such abundance, they must sacrifice their brothers, sisters, and others, once a year in future.A god, by name Boora Panoo, came, with his wife and children, to Tharthaboodi and the two young men, to whom Boora Panoo’s daughters were married. They begat children, who were divided equally between Boora Panoo the grandfather and their fathers. Tharthaboodi objected to this division on the grounds that Boora Panoo’s son would stand in the relation of Mamoo to the children of Kasarodi and Singarodi; that, if the child was a female, when she got married, she would have to give a rupee to her Mamoo;and that, if it was a male that Boora Panoo’s daughter brought forth, the boy when he grew up would have to give the head of any animal he shot to Mamoo (Boora Panoo’s son). Then Boora Panoo built a house, and Kasarodi and Singarodi built two houses. All lived happily for two years. Then Karaboodi appeared in a dream, and told Kasarodi and Singarodi that, if they offered another human victim, their lands would be very fertile, and their cattle could flourish. In the absence of a suitable being, they sacrificed a monkey. Then Karaboodi appeared once more, and said that she was not pleased with the substitution of the monkey, and that a human being must be sacrificed. The two men, with their eight children, sought for a victim for twelve years. At the end of that time, they found a poor man, who had a son four years old, and found him, his wife and child good food, clothing, and shelter for a year. They then asked permission to sacrifice the son in return for their kindness, and the father gave his assent. The boy was fettered and handcuffed to prevent his running away, and taken good care of. Liquor was prepared from grains, and a bamboo, with a flag hoisted on it, planted in the ground. Next day, a pig was sacrificed near this post, and a feast was held. It was proclaimed that the boy would be tied to a post on the following day, and sacrificed on the third day. On the night previous to the sacrifice, the Janni (priest) took a reed, and poked it into the ground in several places. When it entered to a depth of about eight inches, it was believed that the god and goddess Tadapanoo and Dasapanoo were there. Round this spot, seven pieces of wood were arranged lengthways and crossways, and an egg was placed in the centre of the structure. The Khonds arrived from the various villages, and indulged in drink. The boy was teased,and told that he had been sold to them, that his sorrow would affect his parents only, and that he was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the people. He was conducted to the spot where the god and goddess had been found, tied with ropes, and held fast by the Khonds. He was made to lie on his stomach on the wooden structure, and held there. Pieces of flesh were removed from his back, arms and legs, and portions thereof buried at the Khond’s place of worship. Portions were also set up near a well of drinking water, and placed around the villages. The remainder of the sacrificed corpse was cremated on a pyre set alight with fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. On the following day, a buffalo was sacrificed, and a feast partaken of. Next day, the bamboo post was removed outside the village, and a fowl and eggs were offered to the deity. The following stanza is still recited by the Janni at the buffalo sacrifice, which has been substituted for that of a human victim:—Oh! come, male slave; come, female slave. What do you say? What do you call out for? You have been brought, ensnared by the Haddi. You have been called, ensnared by the Domba. What can I do, even if you are my child? You are sold for a pot of food.The ethnological section of the Madras Museum received a few years ago a very interesting relic in the shape of a human (Meriah) sacrifice post from Baligudu in Ganjam. This post, which was fast being reduced to a mere shell by white-ants, is, I believe, the only one now in existence. It was brought by Colonel Pickance, who was Assistant Superintendent of Police, and set up in the ground near the gate of the reserve Police barracks. The veteran members of a party of Kondhs, who were brought to Madras for the purpose of performing beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales in 1906, became wildly excited when they came across this relic of their former barbarous custom.“The best known case,” Mr. Frazer writes,164“of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by British officers, who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops, and immunity from all diseases and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim, a Meriah, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim, that is the son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian.”In 1837, Mr. Russell, in a report on the districts entrusted to his control, wrote as follows.165“The ceremonies attending the barbarous rite, and still more the mode of destroying life, vary in different parts of the country. In the Māliahs of Goomsur, the sacrifice is offered annually to Thadha Pennoo (the earth) under the effigy of a bird intended to represent a peacock, with the view of propitiating the deity to grant favourable seasons and crops. The ceremony is performed at the expense of, and in rotation by, certain mootahs (settlements) composing a community, and connected together from local circumstances. Besides these periodical sacrifices,others are made by single mootahs, and even by individuals, to avert any threatening calamity from sickness, murrain, or other cause. Grown men are the most esteemed (as victims), because the most costly. Children are purchased, and reared for years with the family of the person who ultimately devotes them to a cruel death, when circumstances are supposed to demand a sacrifice at his hands. They seem to be treated with kindness, and, if young, are kept under no constraint; but, when old enough to be sensible of the fate which awaits them, they are placed in fetters and guarded. Most of those who were rescued had been sold by their parents or nearest relations, a practice which, from all we could learn, is very common. Persons of riper age are kidnapped by wretches who trade in human flesh. The victim must always be purchased. Criminals, or prisoners captured in war, are not considered fitting subjects. The price is paid indifferently in brass utensils, cattle or corn. The Zanee (or priest), who may be of any caste, officiates at the sacrifice, but he performs the poojah (offering of flowers, incense, etc.) to the idol through the medium of the Toomba, who must be a Khond child under seven years of age. This child is fed and clothed at the public expense, eats with no other person, and is subjected to no act deemed impure. For a month prior to the sacrifice, there is much feasting and intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah, who is adorned with garlands, etc., and, on the day before the performance of the barbarous rite, is stupefied with toddy, and made to sit, or, if necessary, is bound at the bottom of a post bearing the effigy above described. The assembled multitude then dance around to music, and addressing the earth, say: ‘Oh! God, we offer the sacrifice to you. Give us good crops, seasons, and health.’ After which they addressthe victim, ‘We bought you with a price, and did not seize you. Now we sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.’ On the following day, the victim being again intoxicated and anointed with oil, each individual present touches the anointed part, and wipes the oil on his own head. All then proceed in procession around the village and its boundaries, preceded by music, bearing the victim and a pole, to the top of which is attached a tuft of peacock’s feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the village deity called Zakaree Pennoo, and represented by three stones, near which the brass effigy in the shape of a peacock is buried, they kill a hog in sacrifice and, having allowed the blood to flow into a pit prepared for the purpose, the victim, who, if it has been found possible, has been previously made senseless from intoxication, is seized and thrown in, and his face pressed down until he is suffocated in the bloody mire amid the noise of instruments. The Zanee then cuts a piece of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth. All the rest afterwards go through the same form, and carry the bloody prize to their villages, where the same rites are performed, part being interred near the village idol, and little bits on the boundaries. The head and face remain untouched, and the bones, when bare, are buried with them in the pit. After this horrid ceremony has been completed, a buffalo calf is brought in front of the post, and, his forefeet having been cut off, is left there till the following day. Women, dressed in male attire and armed as men, then drink, dance and sing round the spot, the calf is killed and eaten, and the Zanee is dismissed with a present of rice and a hog or calf.”In the same year, Mr. Arbuthnot, Collector of Vizagapatam, reported as follows. “Of the hill tribe Codooloo, there are said to be two distinct classes, the Cotia Codooloo and Jathapoo Codooloo. The former class is that which is in the habit of offering human sacrifices to the god called Jenkery, with a view to secure good crops. This ceremony is generally performed on the Sunday preceding or following the Pongal feast. The victim is seldom carried by force, but procured by purchase, and there is a fixed price for each person, which consists of forty articles such as a bullock, a male buffalo, a cow, a goat, a piece of cloth, a silk cloth, a brass pot, a large plate, a bunch of plantains, etc. The man who is destined for the sacrifice is carried before the god, and a small quantity of rice coloured with saffron (turmeric) is put upon his head. The influence of this is said to prevent his attempting to escape, even though set at liberty. It would appear, however, that, from the moment of his seizure till he is sacrificed, he is kept in a continued state of stupefaction or intoxication. He is allowed to wander about the village, to eat and drink anything he may take a fancy to, and even to have connection with any of the women whom he may meet. On the morning set apart for the sacrifice, he is carried before the idol in a state of intoxication. One of the villagers acts as priest, who cuts a small hole in the stomach of the victim, and with the blood that flows from the wound the idol is smeared. Then the crowds from the neighbouring villages rush forward, and he is literally cut into pieces. Each person who is so fortunate as to procure it carries away a morsel of the flesh, and presents it to the idol of his own village.”Concerning a method of sacrifice, which is illustrated by the post preserved in the Madras Museum, ColonelCampbell records166that “one of the most common ways of offering the sacrifice in Chinna Kimedi is to the effigy of an elephant (hatti mundo or elephant’s head) rudely carved in wood, fixed on the top of a stout post, on which it is made to revolve. After the performance of the usual ceremonies, the intended victim is fastened to the proboscis of the elephant, and, amidst the shouts and yells of the excited multitude of Khonds, is rapidly whirled round, when, at a given signal by the officiating Zanee or priest, the crowd rush in, seize the Meriah, and with their knives cut the flesh off the shrieking wretch as long as life remains. He is then cut down, the skeleton burnt, and the horrid orgies are over. In several villages I counted as many as fourteen effigies of elephants, which had been used in former sacrifices. These I caused to be overthrown by the baggage elephants attached to my camp in the presence of the assembled Khonds, to show them that these venerated objects had no power against the living animal, and to remove all vestiges of their bloody superstition.” In another report, Colonel Campbell describes how the miserable victim is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half intoxicated Khonds, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piecemeal from the bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt, and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.” Yet again, he describes a sacrifice which was peculiar to the Khonds of Jeypore. “It is,” he writes, “always succeeded by the sacrifice of three human beings, two to the sun to the east and west of the village, and one in the centre,with the usual barbarities of the Meriah. A stout wooden post about six feet long is firmly fixed in the ground, at the foot of it a narrow grave is dug, and to the top of the post the victim is firmly fastened by the long hair of his head. Four assistants hold his outstretched arms and legs, the body being suspended horizontally over the grave, with the face towards the earth. The officiating Junna or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation, at intervals hacking with his sacrificial knife the back part of the shrieking victim’s neck. ‘O! mighty Manicksoro, this is your festal day. To the Khonds the offering is Meriah, to kings Junna. On account of this sacrifice, you have given to kings kingdoms, guns and swords. The sacrifice we now offer you must eat, and we pray that our battle-axes may be converted into swords, our bows and arrows into gunpowder and balls; and, if we have any quarrels with other tribes, give us the victory. Preserve us from the tyranny of kings and their officers.’ Then, addressing the victim:—‘That we may enjoy prosperity, we offer you a sacrifice to our God Manicksoro, who will immediately eat you, so be not grieved at our slaying you. Your parents were aware, when we purchased you from them for sixty rupees, that we did so with intent to sacrifice you. There is, therefore, no sin on our heads, but on your parents. After you are dead, we shall perform your obsequies.’ The victim is then decapitated, the body thrown into the grave, and the head left suspended from the post till devoured by wild beasts. The knife remains fastened to the post till the three sacrifices have been performed, when it is removed with much ceremony. In an account by Captain Mac Viccar of the sacrifice as carried out at Eaji Deso, it is stated that on the day of sacrifice the Meriah is surrounded by the Khonds, whobeat him violently on the head with the heavy metal bangles which they purchase at the fairs, and wear on these occasions. If this inhuman smashing does not immediately destroy the victim’s life, an end is put to his sufferings by strangulation, a slit bamboo being used for the purpose. Strips of flesh are then cut off the back, and each recipient of the precious treasure carries his portion to the stream which waters his fields, and there suspends it on a pole. The remains of the mangled corpse are then buried, and funeral obsequies are performed seven days subsequently, and repeated one year afterwards.”
Vishnu was so astonished at the request of the blind man, which combined riches, issue, and the restorationof his eyesight in one demand, that he granted all his desires.
The Kōmati and the Thief.
An old Kōmati observed a thief at dead of night lurking under a pomegranate tree, and cried out to his wife to bring him a low stool. On this he seated himself in front of the thief, and bawled out for hot water, which his wife brought him. Pretending that he was suffering from severe tooth-ache, he gargled the water, and spat it out continuously at the wondering thief. This went on till daybreak, when he called out his neighbours, who captured the thief, and handed him over to the police.
The Kōmati and his Cakes.
A Kōmati was on his way to the weekly market, with his plate of cakes to sell there. A couple of thieves met him when he was half way there, and, after giving him a severe thrashing, walked off with the cakes. The discomfited Kōmati, on his way back home with the empty plate, was met by another Kōmati going to market with his cakes. The latter asked how the demand for cakes was at the market, and the former replied “Why go to the market, when half-way people come and demand your cakes?” and passed on. The unsuspecting Kōmati went on, and, like the other, was the recipient of a sound thrashing at the hands of the thieves.
The Kōmati and the Scorpion.
A number of Kōmatis went one day to a temple. One of them put one of his fingers into the navel of the image of Vināyakan (the elephant god) at the gateway, when a scorpion, which was inside it, stung him. Putting his finger to his nose, the Kōmati remarked “Whata fine smell! I have never experienced the like.” This induced another man to put his finger in, and he too was stung, and made similar pretence. All of them were thus stung in succession, and then consoled each other.
The Kōmati and the Milk Tax.
Once upon a time, a great king levied a tax upon milk, and all his subjects were sorely tried by it. The Kōmatis, who kept cows, found the tax specially inconvenient. They, therefore, bribed the minister, and mustered in strength before the king, to whom they spoke concerning the oppressive nature of the tax. The king asked what their profit from the milk was. “A pie for a pie” said they to a man, and the king, thinking that persons who profit only a pie ought not to be troubled, forthwith passed orders for the abolition of the tax.
The Kōmati and the Pāndyan King.
Once upon a time, a Pāndyan King had a silver vessel of enormous size made for the use of the palace, and superstitiously believed that its first contents should not be of an ordinary kind. So he ordered his minister to publish abroad that all his subjects were to put into the vessel a chembu-full of milk from each house. The frugal Kōmatis, hearing of this, thought, each to himself, that, as the king had ordered such a large quantity, and others would bring milk, it would suffice if they took a chembu-full of water, as a little water poured into such a large quantity of milk would not change its colour, and it would not be known that they only contributed water. All the Kōmatis accordingly each brought a chembu-full of water, and none of them told the others of the trick he was about to play. But it so happened that the Kōmatis were the first to enter the palace, while theythought that the people of other castes had come and gone. The vessel was placed behind a screen, so that no one might cast the evil eye on it, and the Kōmatis were let in one by one. This they did in all haste, and left with great joy at the success of their trick. Thus there was nothing but water in the vessel. Now it had been arranged that the king was to be the first person to see the contents of his new vessel, and he was thunderstruck to find that it contained only water. He ordered his minister to punish the Kōmatis severely. But the ready-witted Kōmatis came forward, and said “Oh! gracious King, appease thy anger, and kindly listen to what we have to say. We each brought a chembu-full of water, to find out how much the precious vessel will hold. Now that we have taken the measurement, we will forthwith fetch the quantity of milk required.” The king was exceedingly pleased, and sent them away.
A story is told to the effect that, when a Kōmati was asked to identify a horse about which a Muhammadan and Hindu were quarrelling, he said that the fore-part looked like the Muhammadan’s, and the hind-part like the Hindu’s. Another story is told of a Kōmati, who when asked by a Judge what he knew about a fight between two men, deposed that he saw them standing in front of each other and speaking in angry tones when a dust-storm arose. He shut his eyes, and the sound of blows reached his ears, but he could not say which of the men beat the other.
Of proverbs relating to the Kōmatis, the following may be noted:—
A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.
A Brāhman will learn if he suffers, and a Kōmati will learn if he is ruined.
If I ask whether you have salt, you say that you have dhol (a kind of pulse).
Like the burning of a Kōmati’s house, which would mean a heavy loss.
When two Kōmatis whisper on the other side of the lake, you will hear them on this side. This has reference to the harsh voice of the Kōmatis. In native theatricals, the Kōmati is a general favourite with the audience, and he is usually represented as short of stature, obese, and with a raucous voice.
The Kōmati that suits the stake. This has reference to a story in which a Kōmati’s stoutness, brought on by want of exercise and sedentary habits, is said to have shown that he was the proper person to be impaled on a stake. According to the Rev. H. Jensen,151the proverb refers to an incident that took place in ‘the city of injustice.’ A certain man was to be impaled for a crime, but, at the last moment he pointed out that a certain fat merchant (Kōmati) would be better suited for the instrument of punishment, and so escaped. The proverb is now used of a person who is forced to suffer for the faults of others.
The Kōmatis are satirically named Dhaniyāla jāti, or coriander caste, because, as the coriander seed has to be crushed before it is sown, so the Kōmati is supposed to come to terms only by rough treatment.
The Kōmatis have the title Setti or Chetti, which is said to be a contracted form of Srēshti, meaning a precious person. In recent times, some of them have assumed the title Ayya.
Kombara.—The name, meaning a cap made of the spathe of the areca palm (Areca Catechu) of an exogamous sept of Kelasi. Such caps are worn by various classes in South Canara,e.g., the Holeyas and Koragas.
Kombu(stick).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.
Komma.—Komma (a musical horn) or Kommula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kamma and Māla. Kommula is further a professional title for horn-blowers, mainly Māla, Mādiga, and Panisavan, who perform at festivals and funerals.
Kommi.—A gōtra of Gollas, the members of which may not use kommi fuel.
Kompala(houses).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.
Kōnān.—Kōnān or Kōnār is a title of Idaiyans. Some Gollas call themselves Kōnānulu.
Kōnangi(buffoon).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.
Konda(mountain).—An exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Mēdara, and a synonym for Konda Dora.
Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152“Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at themercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him asadscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”
In the Census Report, 1891, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes that “these people all speak Telugu, and the majority of them have returned that as their parent-tongue. But a large number returned their caste name in the parent-tongue column. I have since received a vocabulary, which is said to be taken from the dialect of the Konda Doras; and, if this is correct, then the real speech of these people is a dialect of Khond.” One Durgi Pātro, the head of a mutta (division of a Zemindari) informed Mr. G. F. Paddison that Konda Doras and Khonds areidentical. In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis states that the Konda Doras “seem to be a section of the Khonds, which has largely taken to speaking Telugu, has adopted some of the Telugu customs, and is in the transitional stage between Animism and Hinduism. They call themselves Hindus, and worship the Pāndavas and a goddess called Talupulamma. They drink alcohol, and eat pork, mutton, etc., and will dine with Kāpus.” At times of census, Pāndavakulam (or Pāndava caste) has been returned as a title of the Konda Doras.
For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. There are, among the Konda Doras, two well-defined divisions, called Pedda (big) and Chinna (little) Kondalu. Of these, the former have remained in their old semi-independent position, while the latter have come under Telugu domination. The Chinna Kondalu, who have been living in contact with the Bhaktha caste, have adopted the Telugu system of intipērulu, as exogamous septs, whereas the Pedda Kondalu have retained the totem divisions, which occur among other hill castes,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Bhāg (tiger), and Kochchimo (tortoise). Among the Chinna Kondalu, the custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed, and may further marry his own sister’s daughter. The Chinna Kondalu women wear glass bangles and beads, like women of the plains. Men of the Chinna Kondalu section serve as bearers and Government employees, whereas those of the Pedda Kondalu section are engaged in cultivation. The former have personal names corresponding to those of the inhabitants of the plains,e.g., Linganna, Gangamma, while the names of the latter are taken from the day of the week on whichthey were born,e.g., Bhudra (Wednesday), Sukra (Friday).
Among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a marriage is decided on, the girl’s parents receive a present (vōli) of four rupees and a female cloth. On an auspicious day fixed by the Chukkamusti (star-gazer), the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom. The contracting couple are bathed in turmeric-water, put on new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law, and wrist-threads are tied on their wrists. On the same day, or the following morning, at a time settled by the Chukkamusti, the bridegroom, under the direction of a caste elder, ties the sathamānam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck. On the following day, the wrist-threads are removed, and the newly married couple bathe.
Among the Pedda, as among the Chinna Kondalu, a girl is married before or after puberty. When a man contemplates taking a wife, his parents carry three pots of liquor to the home of the girl whose hand he seeks. The acceptance of these by her father is a sign that the match is agreeable to him, and a jholla tonka (bride-price) of five rupees is paid to him. The future bridegroom’s party has to give three feasts to that of the bride-elect, for each of which a pig is killed. The girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and, if she has reached puberty, remains there. Otherwise she returns home, and joins her husband later on, the occasion being celebrated by a further feast of pork.
Both sections allow the remarriage of widows. Among the Pedda Kondalu, a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. By both sections divorce is permitted. Among the Chinna Kondalus, a man who marries a divorcée has to pay her first husband twenty-fourrupees, of which half is divided among the neighbouring caste villages in certain recognised proportions.
The dead are usually burnt by both sections. The Pedda Kondalu kill a pig on the third day, and hold a feast, at which much liquor is disposed of. By the Chinna Kondalu the chinna rōzu (little day) ceremony is observed, as it is by other castes dwelling in the plains.
The Chinna Kondalu bear the titles Anna or Ayya when they are merely cultivators under Bhaktha landlords, and Dora under other circumstances. The Pedda Kondalu usually have no title.
A riot took place, in 1900, at the village of Korravanivalasa in the Vizagapatam district, under the following strange circumstances. “A Konda Dora of this place, named Korra Mallayya, pretended that he was inspired, and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people from various parts of the agency. At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pāndava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that, to effect this, he would arm his followers with bamboos, which should be turned by magic into guns, and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut, and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these, the camp was drilled by the Swāmi (god), as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Pāchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them, and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but, owing to the threateningattitude of the Swāmi’s followers, had to abandon the attempt. The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Pārvatipur, and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the Swāmi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob, and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested, and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting, and three, including the Swāmi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the Swāmi died in jail, and the other two were hanged. The Swāmi’s infant son, the god Krishna, also died, and all trouble ended at once and completely.”
Concerning the Konda Kāpus or Konda Reddis of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows.153“The hill Reddis, or Konda Reddis, are a caste of jungle men, having some characteristics in common with the Kōyas. They usually talk a rough Telugu, clipping their words so that it is often difficult to understand them; but it is said that some of them speak Kōya. They are of slighter build than the Kōyas, and their villages are even smaller. They will not eat in the house of a Kōya. They call themselves by various high-sounding titles, such as Pāndava Reddis, Rāja Reddis, and Reddis of the solar race (Sūryavamsa), and do not like the plain name of Konda Reddi. They recognize no endogamous sub-divisions, but have exogamous septs. In character they resemble the Kōyas, but are less simple and stupid, and in former years were much given to crime. They live by shifting cultivation. They do not touch beef, but will eat pork. They profess to be both Saivites and Vaishnavites, and occasionally employBrāhman priests at their funerals; and yet they worship the Pāndavas, the spirits of the hills (or, as they call them, the sons of Rācha), their ancestors including women who have died before their husbands, and the deity Muthyālamma and her brother Pōturāzu, Sāralamma, and Unamalamma. The last three are found in nearly every village. Other deities are Doddiganga, who is the protector of cattle, and is worshipped when the herds are driven into the forests to graze, and Dēsaganga (or Paraganga), who takes the place of the Maridamma of the plains, and the Muthyālamma of the Kōyas as goddess of cholera and small-pox. The shrine of Sāralamma of Pedakonda, eight miles east of Rēkapalle, is a place of pilgrimage, and so is Bison Hill (Pāpikonda), where an important Reddi festival is held every seven or eight years in honour of the Pāndava brothers, and a huge fat pig, fattened for the occasion, is killed and eaten. The Reddis, like the Kōyas, also observe the harvest festivals. They are very superstitious, believing firmly in sorcery, and calling in wizards in time of illness. Their villages are formed into groups like those of the Kōyas, and the hereditary headmen over these are called by different names, such as Dora, Mūttadar, Varnapedda, and Kulapatradu. Headmen of villages are known as Pettadars. They recognise, though they do not frequently practice, marriage by capture. If a parent wishes to show his dislike for a match, he absents himself when the suitor’s party calls, and sends a bundle of cold rice after them when they have departed. Children are buried. Vaishnavite Reddis burn their adult dead, while the Saivites bury them. Sātānis officiate as priests to the former, and Jangams to the latter. The pyre is kindled by the eldest male of the family, and a feast is held on the fifth day after thefuneral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families.”
Kondaikatti.—The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, meaning those who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the partially shaved head.
Kondaita.—A sub-division of Doluva.
Kondaiyamkottai.—A sub-division of Maravan.
Kondalar.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste of Vellāla. Kondalam means women’s hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.
Kondh.—In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902–3, Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.
It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that “the Khonds inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, amountain. The number of sub-divisions returned is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond.”
In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.154“The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Kōī dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficultyin understanding the Kui spoken in other parts. There are two principal dialects, one eastern, spoken in Gumsur and the adjoining parts of Bengal, and one western, spoken in Chinna Kimedi. In the north, Kui has come under the influence of the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech, and a specimen forwarded from the Patna State was written in Oriyā with a slight admixture of Chattisgarhī. The number of Kandhs returned at the census of 1891 was 627,388. The language returns, however, give a much smaller figure. The reason is that many Kandhs have abandoned their native speech.”
It has been noted that “the character of the Khonds varies as much as their language. Where there has been much contact with the plains, it is not as favourable as elsewhere. As a rule, they may be taken to be a bold, and fitfully laborious mountain peasantry of simple, but not undignified manners; upright in their conduct; sincere in their superstitions; proud of their position as landholders; and tenacious of their rights. The Linepada Khonds affect manners like Uriyas, and, among other things, will not eat pork (the flesh of wild pigs excepted). The Khond villages have quite the appearance of Uriya villages, the houses are built with mud walls, a thing unknown with Khonds in other parts of the Māliahs; and there is also much neat garden cultivation, which is rare elsewhere, probably because the produce thereof would be appropriated by the Uriyas. In 1902, the Linepada Muttah (settlement) presented the unusual spectacle of a Khond ruler as Dolabēhara, as well as Moliko, with the Uriya Paiks really at his beck and call. In some places, the most valuable portions of the land have passed into the possession of Sondis and low-country sowcars (money-lenders), who have pandered to the Khonds by advancing them money, the greaterportion of which has been expended in drink, the repayment being exacted in land. Except in the Goomsur Māliahs, paddy (rice) cultivation is not extensively carried on by the Khonds; elsewhere it is chiefly in the hands of the Uriyas. The Khonds take little trouble in raising their crops. The result is that, except in the Goomsur Māliahs, where they grow crops to sell in the market for profit, we find a poverty-stricken race, possessing hardly any agricultural stock, and no signs of affluence. In Kimedi, however, they are beginning to follow the example of Goomsur, and doubtless their material prosperity would much increase if some check could be devised to save them from the Uriyas and Sondis, who are steadily acquiring all the wet land, and utilising the Khonds merely as cultivators.”
It is noted by Mr. F. Fawcett (1902)155that “up to within fifteen years ago, the Khônds of the Ganjam hills would not engage in any ordinary labour. They would not, for example, carry even the smallest article of the district officer’s luggage. Elephants were accordingly provided by Government for carriage of tents and all camp luggage. But there has come a change, and, within the last ten years or so, the Khônds have taken to work in the ordinary way. Within the last few years, for the first time, the Khônds have been emigrating to Assam, to work in the tea-gardens. Accurate figures are not available, but the estimate of the best authority gives the number as about 3,000. This emigration is now stopped by edict. Of course, they do not set out, and go of their own accord. They are taken. The strange thing is that they go willingly.” It was enacted, in an order of Government, in 1901,156that “inexercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam.”
In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.157The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in,e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. Thequestion arises as to how the Khonds should be repaid for their labour. Money is of little use to them in this out-of-the-way part of the country, and, if they got it, they would probably go to Surada to get drunk on it. It would be better to pay them in food-grain and cloths, and for this purpose departmental shops, and a regular system of accounts, such as are in force among the Chenchus in Kurnool, would be necessary.
In the course of a lament over the change which has come over the Kondhs who live in the range of hills near Berhampore, Mr. S. P. Rice writes as follows.158“Here they live in seclusion and in freedom, but also in the lowest depths of squalor and poverty. Once they loved gay colours. True Khond dresses, both male and female, are full of stripes and patterns, in blue, yellow, and red. Where has gone the love of colour? Instead of the long waistcloth ending in tails of blue and red, the man binds about him a wretched rag that can hardly be called a garment. Once the women took a delight in decking themselves with flowers, and a pride in the silver ornaments that jangled on their naked breasts. Where are now the grasses that adorned them, and the innocence that allowed them to go clothed only to the waist? Gone! withered by the blast of the breath of a ‘superior civilization.’ Gone are the hairpins of sāmbur bone—an inestimable treasure in the eyes of the true hill Khond. Gone are the floral decorations, and the fantastic head-dresses, which are the pride of the mountain tribes. In dull, unromantic squalor our Khond lives, moves, and has his being; arid, ever as he moves, is heard the clanking upon his wrists of the fetters of his debt. Yet for all that he is happy.” The hairpinsreferred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins.
The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.159“The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature—two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminaliafruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generallyfor salt. [Honey and wax are said to be collected by the Kondhs and Benias, who are expert climbers of precipitous rocks and lofty trees. The Kondhs recognise four different kinds of bees, known by the following Oriya names:—(a) bhaga mohu, a large-sized bee (Apis dorsata); (b) sattapuri mohu, building its comb in seven layers (Apis indica); (c) binchina mohu, with a comb like a fan; (d) nikiti mohu, a very small bee.]160Wet paddy is, of course, grown in the valleys and low-lying bottoms, where water is available, and much ingenuity is exercised in the formation of bunds (embankments) to retain the natural supply of moisture. The Khond has a dead eye for a natural level; it is surprising how speedily a seemingly impracticable tract of jungle will be converted into paddy fields by a laborious process of levelling by means of a flat board attached to a pair of buffaloes. The chief feature of the dry cultivation is the destructive practice of kumeri. A strip of forest, primeval, if possible, as being more fertile, is burnt, cultivated, and then deserted for a term of years, which may vary from three to thirty, according to the density or otherwise of the population. The Kutiah Khonds are the chief offenders in respect of kumeri, to which they confine themselves, as they have no ploughs or agricultural cattle. In the rare instances when they grow a little rice, the fields are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children, assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.
“The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is bound round the loins,with Tartan ends which hang down in front and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate, and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak, which, with an arrangement of ‘bison’ horns and peacock’s feathers, is supposed to strike awe into the beholder’s mind. Khond women wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck and bosom being left bare. Pāno females generally wear an upper cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed, concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements) varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Māliahs, the use of glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam Māliahs has been described as follows.161“He centres his great love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully pinned over the left eyebrow. Thisknot he decorates according to his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller,Coracias indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front, while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in a sāl (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth, bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain places, he very frequently carries a bow and arrows, the former made of bent bamboo, the string of a long strip of bark, and the handle ornamented with stripes of the white quills of the peacock.]
“The Khonds are very keen in the pursuit of game, for which the hot weather is the appointed time, and, during this period, a sambar or ‘bison’ has but little chance of escape if once wounded by an arrow, as they stick to the trail like sleuth hounds, and appear insensible to distance or fatigue. The arms they carry are the bow, arrows, and tangi, a species of light battle-axe that inflicts a serious wound. The women are not addicted to drink, but the males are universally attached to liquor, especially during the hot weather, when the sago palm (solopo:Caryota urens) is in full flow. They often run up sheds in the jungle, near especially good trees, and drink for days together. A great many deaths occur at this season by falls from trees when tapping the liquor.Feasts and sacrifices are occasions for drinking to excess, and the latter especially are often scenes of wild intoxication, the liquor used being either mohwa, or a species of strong beer brewed from rice or koeri. Khond women, when once married, appear to keep pretty straight, but there is a good deal of quiet immorality among the young men and girls, especially during the commencement of the hot weather, when parties are made up for fishing or the collection of mohwa fruit and other jungle berries. At the same time, a certain sense of shame exists, as instances are not at all uncommon of double suicide, when a pair of too ardent lovers are blown upon, and theirliaisonis discovered.
“The generality of Khond and Pâno houses are constructed of broad sâl logs hewn out with the axe, and thatched with jungle grass, which is impervious to white-ants. In bamboo jungles, bamboo is substituted for sâl. The Khond houses are substantially built but very low, the pitch of the roof never exceeding 8 feet, and the eaves being only about 4 feet from the ground, the object being to ensure resistance to the violent storms that prevail during the monsoons.
“Intermarriage between Khonds, Pânos, and Uriyas is not recognised, but cases do occur when a Pâno induces a Khond woman to go off with him. She may live with him as his wife, but no ceremony takes place. If a Pâno commits adultery with a Khond married woman, he has to pay a paronjo, or a fine of a buffalo, to the husband who retains his wife, and in addition a goat, a pig, a basket of paddy, a rupee, and a cavady (shoulder-pole) load of pots. If the adulterer is a Khond, he gets off with payment of the buffalo, which is slaughtered for the entertainment of the village. The husband retains his wife in this case, as also if he findsher pregnant when first she comes to him; this is not an uncommon incident. Divorce of the wife on the husband’s part is thus very rare, if it occurs at all, but cases are not unknown where the wife divorces her husband, and adopts a fresh alliance. When this takes place, her father has to return the whole of the gifts known as gontis, which the bridegroom paid for his wife when the marriage was originally arranged.”
In a note on the tribes of the Agency tracts of the Vizagapatam district, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows.162“Of these, by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are about 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature, and who are so prominent in Ganjam, but a series of communities descended from them, which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors, according to the grade of civilisation to which they have attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria (jungle) Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak tāluk, the Dēsya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nimgiris, and the Kuttiya (hill) Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur tāluk. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system (separatehut for unmarried girls to sleep in) prevails among them in its simplest form, and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practiced to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.163The dress of the civilised Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These civilised Khonds worship all degrees of deities, from their own tribal Jākara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugu; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the intipērulu of the plains.”
There is a tradition that, in olden days, four Kondhs, named Kasi, Mendora, Bolti, and Bolo, with eyes the size of brass pots, teeth like axe-heads, and ears like elephant’s ears, brought their ancestor Mandia Pātro from Jorasingi in Boad, and gave him and his children authority all over the country now comprised in Mahasingi, and in Kurtilli Barakhumma, Bodogodo, Balliguda, and Pussangia, on condition of settling their disputes, and aiding them in their rights. The following legendary account of the origin of the Kondhs is given by Mr. A. B. Jayaram Moodaliar. Once upon a time, the ground was all wet, and there were only two females on the earth, named Karaboodi and Tharthaboodi, each of whom was blessed with a single male child. The namesof the children were Kasarodi and Singarodi. All these individuals sprang from the interior of the earth, together with two small plants called nangakoocha and badokoocha, on which they depended for subsistence. One day, when Karaboodi was cutting these plants for cooking, she accidentally cut the little finger of her left hand, and the blood dropped on the ground. Instantly, the wet soft earth on which it fell became dry and hard. The woman then cooked the food, and gave some of it to her son, who asked her why it tasted so much sweeter than usual. She replied that she might have a dream that night, and, if so, would let him know. Next morning, the woman told him that, if he would act on her advice, he would prosper in this world, that he was not to think of her as his mother, and was to cut away the flesh of her back, dig several holes in the ground, bury the flesh, and cover the holes with stones. This her son did, and the rest of the body was cremated. The wet soil dried up and became hard, and all kinds of animals and trees came into existence. A partridge scratched the ground with its feet, and rāgi (millet), maize, dhāl (pea), and rice sprung forth from it. The two brothers argued that, as the sacrifice of their mother brought forth such abundance, they must sacrifice their brothers, sisters, and others, once a year in future.A god, by name Boora Panoo, came, with his wife and children, to Tharthaboodi and the two young men, to whom Boora Panoo’s daughters were married. They begat children, who were divided equally between Boora Panoo the grandfather and their fathers. Tharthaboodi objected to this division on the grounds that Boora Panoo’s son would stand in the relation of Mamoo to the children of Kasarodi and Singarodi; that, if the child was a female, when she got married, she would have to give a rupee to her Mamoo;and that, if it was a male that Boora Panoo’s daughter brought forth, the boy when he grew up would have to give the head of any animal he shot to Mamoo (Boora Panoo’s son). Then Boora Panoo built a house, and Kasarodi and Singarodi built two houses. All lived happily for two years. Then Karaboodi appeared in a dream, and told Kasarodi and Singarodi that, if they offered another human victim, their lands would be very fertile, and their cattle could flourish. In the absence of a suitable being, they sacrificed a monkey. Then Karaboodi appeared once more, and said that she was not pleased with the substitution of the monkey, and that a human being must be sacrificed. The two men, with their eight children, sought for a victim for twelve years. At the end of that time, they found a poor man, who had a son four years old, and found him, his wife and child good food, clothing, and shelter for a year. They then asked permission to sacrifice the son in return for their kindness, and the father gave his assent. The boy was fettered and handcuffed to prevent his running away, and taken good care of. Liquor was prepared from grains, and a bamboo, with a flag hoisted on it, planted in the ground. Next day, a pig was sacrificed near this post, and a feast was held. It was proclaimed that the boy would be tied to a post on the following day, and sacrificed on the third day. On the night previous to the sacrifice, the Janni (priest) took a reed, and poked it into the ground in several places. When it entered to a depth of about eight inches, it was believed that the god and goddess Tadapanoo and Dasapanoo were there. Round this spot, seven pieces of wood were arranged lengthways and crossways, and an egg was placed in the centre of the structure. The Khonds arrived from the various villages, and indulged in drink. The boy was teased,and told that he had been sold to them, that his sorrow would affect his parents only, and that he was to be sacrificed for the prosperity of the people. He was conducted to the spot where the god and goddess had been found, tied with ropes, and held fast by the Khonds. He was made to lie on his stomach on the wooden structure, and held there. Pieces of flesh were removed from his back, arms and legs, and portions thereof buried at the Khond’s place of worship. Portions were also set up near a well of drinking water, and placed around the villages. The remainder of the sacrificed corpse was cremated on a pyre set alight with fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. On the following day, a buffalo was sacrificed, and a feast partaken of. Next day, the bamboo post was removed outside the village, and a fowl and eggs were offered to the deity. The following stanza is still recited by the Janni at the buffalo sacrifice, which has been substituted for that of a human victim:—Oh! come, male slave; come, female slave. What do you say? What do you call out for? You have been brought, ensnared by the Haddi. You have been called, ensnared by the Domba. What can I do, even if you are my child? You are sold for a pot of food.
The ethnological section of the Madras Museum received a few years ago a very interesting relic in the shape of a human (Meriah) sacrifice post from Baligudu in Ganjam. This post, which was fast being reduced to a mere shell by white-ants, is, I believe, the only one now in existence. It was brought by Colonel Pickance, who was Assistant Superintendent of Police, and set up in the ground near the gate of the reserve Police barracks. The veteran members of a party of Kondhs, who were brought to Madras for the purpose of performing beforethe Prince and Princess of Wales in 1906, became wildly excited when they came across this relic of their former barbarous custom.
“The best known case,” Mr. Frazer writes,164“of human sacrifices systematically offered to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs. Our knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by British officers, who, forty or fifty years ago, were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops, and immunity from all diseases and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim, a Meriah, was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim, that is the son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian.”
In 1837, Mr. Russell, in a report on the districts entrusted to his control, wrote as follows.165“The ceremonies attending the barbarous rite, and still more the mode of destroying life, vary in different parts of the country. In the Māliahs of Goomsur, the sacrifice is offered annually to Thadha Pennoo (the earth) under the effigy of a bird intended to represent a peacock, with the view of propitiating the deity to grant favourable seasons and crops. The ceremony is performed at the expense of, and in rotation by, certain mootahs (settlements) composing a community, and connected together from local circumstances. Besides these periodical sacrifices,others are made by single mootahs, and even by individuals, to avert any threatening calamity from sickness, murrain, or other cause. Grown men are the most esteemed (as victims), because the most costly. Children are purchased, and reared for years with the family of the person who ultimately devotes them to a cruel death, when circumstances are supposed to demand a sacrifice at his hands. They seem to be treated with kindness, and, if young, are kept under no constraint; but, when old enough to be sensible of the fate which awaits them, they are placed in fetters and guarded. Most of those who were rescued had been sold by their parents or nearest relations, a practice which, from all we could learn, is very common. Persons of riper age are kidnapped by wretches who trade in human flesh. The victim must always be purchased. Criminals, or prisoners captured in war, are not considered fitting subjects. The price is paid indifferently in brass utensils, cattle or corn. The Zanee (or priest), who may be of any caste, officiates at the sacrifice, but he performs the poojah (offering of flowers, incense, etc.) to the idol through the medium of the Toomba, who must be a Khond child under seven years of age. This child is fed and clothed at the public expense, eats with no other person, and is subjected to no act deemed impure. For a month prior to the sacrifice, there is much feasting and intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah, who is adorned with garlands, etc., and, on the day before the performance of the barbarous rite, is stupefied with toddy, and made to sit, or, if necessary, is bound at the bottom of a post bearing the effigy above described. The assembled multitude then dance around to music, and addressing the earth, say: ‘Oh! God, we offer the sacrifice to you. Give us good crops, seasons, and health.’ After which they addressthe victim, ‘We bought you with a price, and did not seize you. Now we sacrifice you according to custom, and no sin rests with us.’ On the following day, the victim being again intoxicated and anointed with oil, each individual present touches the anointed part, and wipes the oil on his own head. All then proceed in procession around the village and its boundaries, preceded by music, bearing the victim and a pole, to the top of which is attached a tuft of peacock’s feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the village deity called Zakaree Pennoo, and represented by three stones, near which the brass effigy in the shape of a peacock is buried, they kill a hog in sacrifice and, having allowed the blood to flow into a pit prepared for the purpose, the victim, who, if it has been found possible, has been previously made senseless from intoxication, is seized and thrown in, and his face pressed down until he is suffocated in the bloody mire amid the noise of instruments. The Zanee then cuts a piece of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth. All the rest afterwards go through the same form, and carry the bloody prize to their villages, where the same rites are performed, part being interred near the village idol, and little bits on the boundaries. The head and face remain untouched, and the bones, when bare, are buried with them in the pit. After this horrid ceremony has been completed, a buffalo calf is brought in front of the post, and, his forefeet having been cut off, is left there till the following day. Women, dressed in male attire and armed as men, then drink, dance and sing round the spot, the calf is killed and eaten, and the Zanee is dismissed with a present of rice and a hog or calf.”
In the same year, Mr. Arbuthnot, Collector of Vizagapatam, reported as follows. “Of the hill tribe Codooloo, there are said to be two distinct classes, the Cotia Codooloo and Jathapoo Codooloo. The former class is that which is in the habit of offering human sacrifices to the god called Jenkery, with a view to secure good crops. This ceremony is generally performed on the Sunday preceding or following the Pongal feast. The victim is seldom carried by force, but procured by purchase, and there is a fixed price for each person, which consists of forty articles such as a bullock, a male buffalo, a cow, a goat, a piece of cloth, a silk cloth, a brass pot, a large plate, a bunch of plantains, etc. The man who is destined for the sacrifice is carried before the god, and a small quantity of rice coloured with saffron (turmeric) is put upon his head. The influence of this is said to prevent his attempting to escape, even though set at liberty. It would appear, however, that, from the moment of his seizure till he is sacrificed, he is kept in a continued state of stupefaction or intoxication. He is allowed to wander about the village, to eat and drink anything he may take a fancy to, and even to have connection with any of the women whom he may meet. On the morning set apart for the sacrifice, he is carried before the idol in a state of intoxication. One of the villagers acts as priest, who cuts a small hole in the stomach of the victim, and with the blood that flows from the wound the idol is smeared. Then the crowds from the neighbouring villages rush forward, and he is literally cut into pieces. Each person who is so fortunate as to procure it carries away a morsel of the flesh, and presents it to the idol of his own village.”
Concerning a method of sacrifice, which is illustrated by the post preserved in the Madras Museum, ColonelCampbell records166that “one of the most common ways of offering the sacrifice in Chinna Kimedi is to the effigy of an elephant (hatti mundo or elephant’s head) rudely carved in wood, fixed on the top of a stout post, on which it is made to revolve. After the performance of the usual ceremonies, the intended victim is fastened to the proboscis of the elephant, and, amidst the shouts and yells of the excited multitude of Khonds, is rapidly whirled round, when, at a given signal by the officiating Zanee or priest, the crowd rush in, seize the Meriah, and with their knives cut the flesh off the shrieking wretch as long as life remains. He is then cut down, the skeleton burnt, and the horrid orgies are over. In several villages I counted as many as fourteen effigies of elephants, which had been used in former sacrifices. These I caused to be overthrown by the baggage elephants attached to my camp in the presence of the assembled Khonds, to show them that these venerated objects had no power against the living animal, and to remove all vestiges of their bloody superstition.” In another report, Colonel Campbell describes how the miserable victim is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half intoxicated Khonds, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piecemeal from the bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt, and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.” Yet again, he describes a sacrifice which was peculiar to the Khonds of Jeypore. “It is,” he writes, “always succeeded by the sacrifice of three human beings, two to the sun to the east and west of the village, and one in the centre,with the usual barbarities of the Meriah. A stout wooden post about six feet long is firmly fixed in the ground, at the foot of it a narrow grave is dug, and to the top of the post the victim is firmly fastened by the long hair of his head. Four assistants hold his outstretched arms and legs, the body being suspended horizontally over the grave, with the face towards the earth. The officiating Junna or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation, at intervals hacking with his sacrificial knife the back part of the shrieking victim’s neck. ‘O! mighty Manicksoro, this is your festal day. To the Khonds the offering is Meriah, to kings Junna. On account of this sacrifice, you have given to kings kingdoms, guns and swords. The sacrifice we now offer you must eat, and we pray that our battle-axes may be converted into swords, our bows and arrows into gunpowder and balls; and, if we have any quarrels with other tribes, give us the victory. Preserve us from the tyranny of kings and their officers.’ Then, addressing the victim:—‘That we may enjoy prosperity, we offer you a sacrifice to our God Manicksoro, who will immediately eat you, so be not grieved at our slaying you. Your parents were aware, when we purchased you from them for sixty rupees, that we did so with intent to sacrifice you. There is, therefore, no sin on our heads, but on your parents. After you are dead, we shall perform your obsequies.’ The victim is then decapitated, the body thrown into the grave, and the head left suspended from the post till devoured by wild beasts. The knife remains fastened to the post till the three sacrifices have been performed, when it is removed with much ceremony. In an account by Captain Mac Viccar of the sacrifice as carried out at Eaji Deso, it is stated that on the day of sacrifice the Meriah is surrounded by the Khonds, whobeat him violently on the head with the heavy metal bangles which they purchase at the fairs, and wear on these occasions. If this inhuman smashing does not immediately destroy the victim’s life, an end is put to his sufferings by strangulation, a slit bamboo being used for the purpose. Strips of flesh are then cut off the back, and each recipient of the precious treasure carries his portion to the stream which waters his fields, and there suspends it on a pole. The remains of the mangled corpse are then buried, and funeral obsequies are performed seven days subsequently, and repeated one year afterwards.”